From the Shore
A lone gray bird,Dim-dipping, far-flying,Alone in the shadows and grandeurs and tumultsOf night and the seaAnd the stars and storms.
Out over the darkness it wavers and hovers,Out into the gloom it swings and batters,Out into the wind and the rain and the vast,Out into the pit of a great black world,Where fogs are at battle, sky-driven, sea-blown,Love of mist and rapture of flight,Glories of chance and hazards of deathOn its eager and palpitant wings.
Out into the deep of the great dark world,Beyond the long borders where foam and driftOf the sundering waves are lost and goneOn the tides that plunge and rear and crumble.
Words in this poem
- lone n.
- A lane. See Loanin.
- palpitant a.
- Palpitating; throbbing; trembling. Carlyle. [L. palpitans, p. pr.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
From the Shore 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, From the Shore, in Chicago Poems (1916), text of Wikisource, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sandburg-chicago-poems/from-the-shore.html, id L28977.
Form and metre
From the Shore is 17 lines in 3 stanzas.
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| A lone gray bird, | 4 | ···· |
| Dim-dipping, far-flying, | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| Alone in the shadows and grandeurs and tumults | 12 | ˘/··/··˘/·/˘ |
| Of night and the sea | 5 | ····· |
| And the stars and storms. | 5 | ····· |
| Out over the darkness it wavers and hovers, | 12 | ····/˘·/˘·/˘ |
| Out into the gloom it swings and batters, | 10 | ········/˘ |
| Out into the wind and the rain and the vast, | 11 | ··········· |
| Out into the pit of a great black world, | 10 | ·········· |
| Where fogs are at battle, sky-driven, sea-blown, | 11 | ····/˘·/˘·· |
| Love of mist and rapture of flight, | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Glories of chance and hazards of death | 9 | /˘···/˘·· |
| On its eager and palpitant wings. | 9 | ··/˘·/˘˘· |
| Out into the deep of the great dark world, | 10 | ·········· |
| Beyond the long borders where foam and drift | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| Of the sundering waves are lost and gone | 10 | ··/˘˘····· |
| On the tides that plunge and rear and crumble. | 10 | ········/˘ |
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.