Montparnasse
There are never any suicides in the quarter among people one knowsNo successful suicides.A Chinese boy kills himself and is dead.(they continue to place his mail in the letter rack at the Dome)A Norwegian boy kills himself and is dead.(no one knows where the other Norwegian boy has gone)They find a model deadalone in bed and very dead.(it made almost unbearable trouble for the concierge)Sweet oil, the white of eggs, mustard and water, soap sudsand stomach pumps rescue the people one knows.Every afternoon the people one knows can be found at the café.
Words in this poem
- norwegian a.
- Of or pertaining to Norway, its inhabitants, or its language. [Cf. Icel. Noregr, Norvegr, Norway. See North, and Way.]
- concierge n.
- One who keeps the entrance to an edifice, public or private; a doorkeeper; a janitor, male or female. [F.]
- suds n.
- Water impregnated with soap, esp. when worked up into bubbles and froth. In the suds, in turmoil or difficulty. Beau. & Fl. [Akin to sodden, seethe. See Seethe.]
- afternoon n.
- The part of the day which follows noon, between noon and evening.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Montparnasse is in the public domain. This text is taken from Three Stories & Ten Poems (poems only), Project Gutenberg ebook #59603; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Ernest Hemingway, Montparnasse, in Ten Poems (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59603, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hemingway-ten-poems/montparnasse.html, id L27124.
Form and metre
Montparnasse is 12 lines in a single stanza.
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-B-BB--A- knowsA · suicides · deadB · dome · deadB · gone · deadB · deadB · concierge · suds · knowsA · café
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 |
|---|---|---|
| There are never any suicides in the quarter among people one knows | 19 | ··/˘/˘/˘···/˘··/˘·· |
| No successful suicides. | 7 | ·˘/˘/˘· |
| A Chinese boy kills himself and is dead. | 10 | ·˘/··˘/··· |
| (they continue to place his mail in the letter rack at the Dome) | 16 | ·˘/˘······/˘···· |
| A Norwegian boy kills himself and is dead. | 11 | ··/˘··˘/··· |
| (no one knows where the other Norwegian boy has gone) | 13 | ·····/˘·/˘··· |
| They find a model dead | 6 | ···/˘· |
| alone in bed and very dead. | 8 | ˘/···/˘· |
| (it made almost unbearable trouble for the concierge) | 15 | ··/·˘/˘˘/˘···˘/ |
| Sweet oil, the white of eggs, mustard and water, soap suds | 13 | ······/˘·/˘·· |
| and stomach pumps rescue the people one knows. | 11 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘·· |
| Every afternoon the people one knows can be found at the café. | 17 | /˘˘·˘/·/˘········ |
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.