Kansas City Vs. Detroit
A rooster flapped his wings and crowedA merrysome cockadoodledoo,As out of the west a cowboy rodeTo the land where the peach and the clapboard grew,Humming a gentle tralalaloo.
"O insect with the gilded wing,"The cowboy cried, "Pray tell me trueWhy do you crane your neck and singThat wearisome cockadoodledoo?Would you like to learn the tralalaloo?"
Now the rooster squawked an impudent wordWhereat the angered cowboy threwHis lariat at the haughty birdAnd choked him until his gills were blueAnd his eyes hung out an inch or two.
"Now hear me sing," the cowboy cried;"It ain't no cockadoodledoo--It's a song we sing on the prairies wide--The simple song of tralalaloo,Which is cowboy slang for 12 to 2."
Words in this poem
- rooster n.
- The male of the domestic fowl; a cock. [U.S.]
- cowboy n.
- A cattle herder; a drover; specifically, one of an adventurous class of herders and drovers on the plains of the Western and Southwestern United States.
- rode n.
- Redness; complexion. [See Rud.]
- clapboard n.
- A narrow board, thicker at one edge than at the other; -- used for weatherboarding the outside of houses. [U. S.]
- whereat adv.
- At which; upon which; whereupon; -- used relatively.
- lariat n.
- A long, slender rope made of hemp or strips of hide, esp. one with a noose; -- used as a lasso for catching cattle, horses, etc., and for picketing a horse so that he can graze without wandering. [Sp. la reata the rope; la the + reata rope. Cf. Reata.]
- haughty a.
- High; lofty; bold. [OE. hautein, F. hautain, fr. haut high, OF. also halt, fr. L. altus. See Altitude.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Kansas City Vs. Detroit is in the public domain. This text is taken from Hoosier Lyrics, Project Gutenberg ebook #36150; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Eugene Field, Kansas City Vs. Detroit, in Hoosier Lyrics (1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #36150, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/field-poems/kansas-city-vs-detroit.html, id L11635.
Form and metre
Kansas City Vs. Detroit is 20 lines in 4 stanzas of 5 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABB, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.7 syllables. 40% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABABB crowedA · cockadoodledooB · rodeA · grewB · tralalalooB
- 2 ABABB wingA · trueB · singA · cockadoodledooB · tralalalooB
- 3 ABABB wordA · threwB · birdA · blueB · twoB
- 4 ABAB- criedA · cockadoodledooB · wideA · tralalalooB · —
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. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| A rooster flapped his wings and crowed | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| A merrysome cockadoodledoo, | 9 | ········· |
| As out of the west a cowboy rode | 9 | ······/·· |
| To the land where the peach and the clapboard grew, | 11 | ········/·· |
| Humming a gentle tralalaloo. | 9 | /˘·/˘···· |
| "O insect with the gilded wing," | 8 | ·/···/˘· |
| The cowboy cried, "Pray tell me true | 8 | ·/······ |
| Why do you crane your neck and sing | 8 | ········ |
| That wearisome cockadoodledoo? | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Would you like to learn the tralalaloo?" | 10 | ·········· |
| Now the rooster squawked an impudent word | 10 | ··/˘··/˘˘· |
| Whereat the angered cowboy threw | 8 | ˘/·/˘/·· |
| His lariat at the haughty bird | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And choked him until his gills were blue | 9 | ········· |
| And his eyes hung out an inch or two. | 9 | ········· |
| "Now hear me sing," the cowboy cried; | 8 | ·····/·· |
| "It ain't no cockadoodledoo-- | 8 | ········ |
| It's a song we sing on the prairies wide-- | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The simple song of tralalaloo, | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| Which is cowboy slang for 12 to 2." | 7 | ··/···· |
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.