'Boes
I waited today for a freight train to pass.Cattle cars with steers butting their horns against the bars, went by.And a half a dozen hoboes stood on bumpers between cars.Well, the cattle are respectable, I thought.Every steer has its transportation paid for by the farmer sending it to market,While the hoboes are law-breakers in riding a railroad train without a ticket.It reminded me of ten days I spent in the Allegheny County jail in Pittsburgh.I got ten days even though I was a veteran of the Spanish-American war.Cooped in the same cell with me was an old man, a bricklayer and a booze-fighter.But it just happened he, too, was a veteran soldier, and he had fought to preserve the Union and free the niggers.We were three in all, the other being a Lithuanian who got drunk on pay day at the steel works and got to fighting a policeman;All the clothes he had was a shirt, pants and shoes—somebody got his hat and coat and what money he had left over when he got drunk.
Words in this poem
- butting n.
- An abuttal; a boundary.
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- allegheny a.
- Of or pertaining to the Allegheny Mountains, or the region where they are situated. Also Al"le*gha`ny.
- county n.
- An earldom; the domain of a count or earl. [F. comt, fr. LL. comitatus. See Count.]
- bricklayer n.
- One whose pccupation is to build with bricks. Bricklayer's itch. See under Itch. [Brick + lay.]
- fighter n.
- One who fights; a combatant; a warrior. [AS. feohtere.]
- lithuanian a.
- Of or pertaining to Lithuania (formerly a principality united with Poland, but now Russian and Prussian territory).
- somebody n.
- A person unknown or uncertain; a person indeterminate; some person.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
'Boes 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, 'Boes, in Chicago Poems (1916), text of Wikisource, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sandburg-chicago-poems/boes.html, id L28984.
Form and metre
'Boes 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 ---AAA------ pass · by · cars · thoughtA · marketA · ticketA · pittsburgh · war · fighter · niggers · policeman · drunk
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I waited today for a freight train to pass. | 11 | ·/˘˘/······ |
| Cattle cars with steers butting their horns against the bars, went by. | 15 | /˘···/˘········ |
| And a half a dozen hoboes stood on bumpers between cars. | 15 | ····/˘/˘··/˘··· |
| Well, the cattle are respectable, I thought. | 11 | ··/˘·˘/˘˘·· |
| Every steer has its transportation paid for by the farmer sending it to market, | 22 | /˘˘····˘/˘····/˘/˘··/˘ |
| While the hoboes are law-breakers in riding a railroad train without a ticket. | 20 | ··/˘··/˘·/˘·/·····/˘ |
| It reminded me of ten days I spent in the Allegheny County jail in Pittsburgh. | 22 | ·˘/˘·········˘/˘/˘··/˘ |
| I got ten days even though I was a veteran of the Spanish-American war. | 22 | ····/˘····/˘˘··/˘˘/˘˘· |
| Cooped in the same cell with me was an old man, a bricklayer and a booze-fighter. | 20 | ············/·˘···/˘ |
| But it just happened he, too, was a veteran soldier, and he had fought to preserve the Union and free the niggers. | 29 | ···/˘····/˘˘/˘·····˘/·/˘···/˘ |
| We were three in all, the other being a Lithuanian who got drunk on pay day at the steel works and got to fighting a policeman; | 35 | ······/˘/˘··˘/˘˘·············/˘·˘/˘ |
| All the clothes he had was a shirt, pants and shoes—somebody got his hat and coat and what money he had left over when he got drunk. | 32 | ···········/·˘·······/˘········· |
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.