Graceland
Tomb of a millionaire,A multi-millionaire, ladies and gentlemen,Place of the dead where they spend every yearThe usury of twenty-five thousand dollarsFor upkeep and flowersTo keep fresh the memory of the dead.The merchant prince gone to dustCommanded in his written willOver the signed name of his last testamentTwenty-five thousand dollars be set asideFor roses, lilacs, hydrangeas, tulips,For perfume and color, sweetness of remembranceAround his last long home.
(A hundred cash girls want nickels to go to the movies to-night.In the back stalls of a hundred saloons, women are at tablesDrinking with men or waiting for men jingling loose silver dollars in their pockets.In a hundred furnished rooms is a girl who sells silk or dress goods or leather stuff for six dollars a week wagesAnd when she pulls on her stockings in the morning she is reckless about God and the newspapers and the police, the talk of her home town or the name people call her.)
Words in this poem
- millionaire n.
- One whose wealth is counted by millions of francs, dollars, or pounds; a very rich person; a person worth a million or more. [F. millionnaire.]
- usury n.
- A premium or increase paid, or stipulated to be paid, for a loan, as of money; interest. [OE. usurie, usure, F. usure, L. usura use, usury, interest, fr. uti, p. p. usus, to use. See Use, v. t.]
- upkeep n.
- The act of keeping up, or maintaining; maintenance.
- jingling n.
- The act or process of producing a jingle; also, the sound itself; a chink.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Graceland 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, Graceland, in Chicago Poems (1916), text of Wikisource, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sandburg-chicago-poems/graceland.html, id L28869.
Form and metre
Graceland is 18 lines in 2 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.
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---------- millionaireA · gentlemen · yearA · dollars · flowers · dead · dust · will · testament · aside · tulips · remembrance · home
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Tomb of a millionaire, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| A multi-millionaire, ladies and gentlemen, | 12 | ·/˘·˘//˘·/˘˘ |
| Place of the dead where they spend every year | 11 | ·······/˘˘· |
| The usury of twenty-five thousand dollars | 12 | ·/˘˘·/˘·/˘/˘ |
| For upkeep and flowers | 6 | ·/··/˘ |
| To keep fresh the memory of the dead. | 10 | ····/˘˘··· |
| The merchant prince gone to dust | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Commanded in his written will | 8 | ˘/˘··/˘· |
| Over the signed name of his last testament | 11 | ········/˘˘ |
| Twenty-five thousand dollars be set aside | 11 | /˘·/˘/˘··˘/ |
| For roses, lilacs, hydrangeas, tulips, | 10 | ·/˘/····/˘ |
| For perfume and color, sweetness of remembrance | 12 | ·˘/·/˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| Around his last long home. | 6 | ······ |
| (A hundred cash girls want nickels to go to the movies to-night. | 16 | ·/˘···/˘····/˘·· |
| In the back stalls of a hundred saloons, women are at tables | 16 | ······/˘˘//˘··/˘ |
| Drinking with men or waiting for men jingling loose silver dollars in their pockets. | 21 | /˘···/˘··/˘˘·/˘/˘··/˘ |
| In a hundred furnished rooms is a girl who sells silk or dress goods or leather stuff for six dollars a week wages | 28 | ··/˘/˘···········/˘···/˘··/˘ |
| And when she pulls on her stockings in the morning she is reckless about God and the newspapers and the police, the talk of her home town or the name people call her.) | 41 | ······/˘··/˘··/˘·····/·˘··˘/·········/˘·· |
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.