Jaws
Seven nations stood with their hands on the jaws of death.It was the first week in August, Nineteen Hundred Fourteen.I was listening, you were listening, the whole world was listening,And all of us heard a Voice murmuring:"I am the way and the light,He that believeth on meShall not perishBut shall have everlasting life."Seven nations listening heard the Voice and answered:"O Hell!"The jaws of death began clicking and they go on clicking:"O Hell!"
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Jaws 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, Jaws, in Chicago Poems (1916), text of Wikisource, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sandburg-chicago-poems/jaws.html, id L28924.
Form and metre
Jaws 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 ---------A-A death · fourteen · listening · murmuring · light · me · perish · life · answered · hellA · clicking · hellA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Seven nations stood with their hands on the jaws of death. | 13 | /˘/˘········· |
| It was the first week in August, Nineteen Hundred Fourteen. | 14 | ······/˘///˘// |
| I was listening, you were listening, the whole world was listening, | 17 | ··/˘˘··/˘˘····/˘˘ |
| And all of us heard a Voice murmuring: | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| "I am the way and the light, | 7 | ······· |
| He that believeth on me | 7 | ··˘/˘·· |
| Shall not perish | 4 | ··/˘ |
| But shall have everlasting life." | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Seven nations listening heard the Voice and answered: | 13 | /˘/˘/˘˘····/˘ |
| "O Hell!" | 2 | ·· |
| The jaws of death began clicking and they go on clicking: | 14 | ····˘//˘····/˘ |
| "O Hell!" | 2 | ·· |
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.