I Sang
I sang to you and the moonBut only the moon remembers.I sangO reckless free-heartedfree-throated rythms,Even the moon remembers themAnd is kind to me.
About this text
I Sang 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, I Sang, in Chicago Poems (1916), text of Wikisource, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sandburg-chicago-poems/i-sang.html, id L28950.
Form and metre
I Sang is 7 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.
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 sang to you and the moon | 7 | ······· |
| But only the moon remembers. | 8 | ·/˘··˘/˘ |
| I sang | 2 | ·· |
| O reckless free-hearted | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| free-throated rythms, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Even the moon remembers them | 8 | /˘··˘/˘· |
| And is kind to me. | 5 | ····· |
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.