What the Rattlesnake Said
The moon's a little prairie-dog.He shivers through the night.He sits upon his hill and criesFor fear that I will bite.
The sun's a broncho. He's afraidLike every other thing,And trembles, morning, noon and night,Lest I should spring, and sting.
Words in this poem
- broncho n.
- A native or a Mexican horse of small size. [Western U.S.] [Sp. bronco rough, wild.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
What the Rattlesnake Said is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Congo, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #1021; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Vachel Lindsay, What the Rattlesnake Said, in The Congo and Other Poems (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1021, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lindsay-congo/what-the-rattlesnake-said.html, id L00982.
Form and metre
What the Rattlesnake Said is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.0 syllables. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in common measure.
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-A dog · nightA · cries · biteA
- 2 -A-A afraid · thingA · night · stingA
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The moon's a little prairie-dog. | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| He shivers through the night. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| He sits upon his hill and cries | 8 | ········ |
| For fear that I will bite. | 6 | ······ |
| The sun's a broncho. He's afraid | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Like every other thing, | 7 | ·/˘˘/˘· |
| And trembles, morning, noon and night, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Lest I should spring, and sting. | 6 | ······ |
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.