The Boston Evening Transcript
The readers of the Boston Evening TranscriptSway in the blind like a field of ripe corn.When evening quickens faintly in the street,Wakening the appetites of life in someAnd to others bringing the Boston Evening Transcript,I mount the steps and ring the bell, turningWearily, as one would turn to nod good-bye to RochefoucauldIf the street were time and he at the end of the street,And I say, “Cousin Harriet, here is the Boston Evening Transcript.”
Words in this poem
- wakening n.
- The act of one who wakens; esp., the act of ceasing to sleep; an awakening.
- wearily adv.
- In a weary manner.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Boston Evening Transcript is in the public domain. This text is taken from Prufrock and Other Observations, Project Gutenberg ebook #1459; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: T. S. Eliot, The Boston Evening Transcript, in Prufrock and Other Observations (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1459, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/eliot-prufrock/the-boston-evening-transcript.html, id L04658.
Form and metre
The Boston Evening Transcript is 9 lines in a single stanza. 85% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 12.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 44% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 A-B-A--BA transcriptA · corn · streetB · some · transcriptA · turning · rochefoucauld · streetB · transcriptA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The readers of the Boston Evening Transcript | 11 | ·/˘··/˘/˘/· |
| Sway in the blind like a field of ripe corn. | 10 | ·········· |
| When evening quickens faintly in the street, | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| Wakening the appetites of life in some | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| And to others bringing the Boston Evening Transcript, | 13 | ··/˘/˘·/˘/˘/· |
| I mount the steps and ring the bell, turning | 10 | ········/˘ |
| Wearily, as one would turn to nod good-bye to Rochefoucauld | 15 | /˘············· |
| If the street were time and he at the end of the street, | 13 | ············· |
| And I say, “Cousin Harriet, here is the Boston Evening Transcript.” | 16 | ···/˘/˘···/˘/˘/· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.