Child of the Romans
The dago shovelman sits by the railroad trackEating a noon meal of bread and bologna.A train whirls by, and men and women at tablesAlive with red roses and yellow jonquils,Eat steaks running with brown gravy,Strawberries and cream, eclaires and coffee.The dago shovelman finishes the dry bread and bologna,Washes it down with a dipper from the water-boy,And goes back to the second half of a ten-hour day's workKeeping the road-bed so the roses and jonquilsShake hardly at all in the cut glass vasesStanding slender on the tables in the dining cars.
Words in this poem
- dago n.
- A nickname given to a person of Spanish (or, by extension, Portuguese or Italian) descent. [U. S.] [Cf. Sp. Diego, E. James.]
- bologna n.
- A city of Italy which has given its name to various objects.
- dipper n.
- One who, or that which, dips; especially, a vessel used to dip water or other liquid; a ladle.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Child of the Romans 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, Child of the Romans, in Chicago Poems (1916), text of Wikisource, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sandburg-chicago-poems/child-of-the-romans.html, id L28870.
Form and metre
Child of the Romans 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 -ABB--A--B-- track · bolognaA · tablesB · jonquilsB · gravy · coffee · bolognaA · boy · work · jonquilsB · vases · cars
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The dago shovelman sits by the railroad track | 12 | ·/˘······/·· |
| Eating a noon meal of bread and bologna. | 11 | /˘······˘/˘ |
| A train whirls by, and men and women at tables | 12 | ·······/˘·/˘ |
| Alive with red roses and yellow jonquils, | 11 | ˘/··/˘·/˘·· |
| Eat steaks running with brown gravy, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Strawberries and cream, eclaires and coffee. | 10 | /·˘·····/˘ |
| The dago shovelman finishes the dry bread and bologna, | 16 | ·/˘···/˘˘····˘/˘ |
| Washes it down with a dipper from the water-boy, | 13 | /˘····/˘··/˘· |
| And goes back to the second half of a ten-hour day's work | 15 | ·····/˘····/˘·· |
| Keeping the road-bed so the roses and jonquils | 12 | /˘·····/˘··· |
| Shake hardly at all in the cut glass vases | 11 | ·/˘······/˘ |
| Standing slender on the tables in the dining cars. | 13 | /˘/˘··/˘··/˘· |
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.