Between Two Hills
Between two hillsThe old town stands.The houses loomAnd the roofs and treesAnd the dusk and the dark,The damp and the dewAre there.
The prayers are saidAnd the people restFor sleep is thereAnd the touch of dreamsIs over all.
About this text
Between Two Hills is in the public domain. This text is taken from Chicago Poems, Wikisource; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Carl Sandburg, Between Two Hills, in Chicago Poems (1916), text of Wikisource, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sandburg-chicago-poems/between-two-hills.html, id L28956.
Form and metre
Between Two Hills is 12 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other poems in iambic dimeter.
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.
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 dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Between two hills | 4 | ···· |
| The old town stands. | 4 | ···· |
| The houses loom | 4 | ·/˘· |
| And the roofs and trees | 5 | ····· |
| And the dusk and the dark, | 6 | ······ |
| The damp and the dew | 5 | ····· |
| Are there. | 2 | ·· |
| The prayers are said | 4 | ···· |
| And the people rest | 5 | ··/˘· |
| For sleep is there | 4 | ···· |
| And the touch of dreams | 5 | ····· |
| Is over all. | 4 | ···· |
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.