Languages
There are no handles upon a languageWhereby men take hold of itAnd mark it with signs for its remembrance.It is a river, this language,Once in a thousand yearsBreaking a new courseChanging its way to the ocean.It is mountain effluviaMoving to valleysAnd from nation to nationCrossing borders and mixing.Languages die like rivers.Words wrapped round your tongue todayAnd broken to shape of thoughtBetween your teeth and lips speakingNow and todayShall be faded hieroglyphicsTen thousand years from now.Sing—and singing—rememberYour song dies and changesAnd is not here to-morrowAny more than the windBlowing ten thousand years ago.
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
Languages 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, Languages, in Chicago Poems (1916), text of Wikisource, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sandburg-chicago-poems/languages.html, id L28988.
Form and metre
Languages is 23 lines in a single stanza. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 76%).
See other poems in trochaic tetrameter.
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--------B--B------- languageA · it · remembrance · languageA · years · course · ocean · effluvia · valleys · nation · mixing · rivers · todayB · thought · speaking · todayB · hieroglyphics · now · remember · changes · morrow · wind · ago
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. Read against trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| There are no handles upon a language | 10 | ···/˘···/˘ |
| Whereby men take hold of it | 7 | ······· |
| And mark it with signs for its remembrance. | 10 | ·······˘/˘ |
| It is a river, this language, | 8 | ···/˘·/˘ |
| Once in a thousand years | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Breaking a new course | 5 | /˘··· |
| Changing its way to the ocean. | 8 | /˘····/˘ |
| It is mountain effluvia | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Moving to valleys | 5 | /˘·/˘ |
| And from nation to nation | 7 | ··/˘·/˘ |
| Crossing borders and mixing. | 7 | /˘/˘·/˘ |
| Languages die like rivers. | 7 | /˘˘··/˘ |
| Words wrapped round your tongue today | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| And broken to shape of thought | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Between your teeth and lips speaking | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Now and today | 4 | ··˘/ |
| Shall be faded hieroglyphics | 8 | ··/˘·˘/˘ |
| Ten thousand years from now. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Sing—and singing—remember | 7 | ··/˘˘/˘ |
| Your song dies and changes | 6 | ····/˘ |
| And is not here to-morrow | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Any more than the wind | 6 | /˘···· |
| Blowing ten thousand years ago. | 8 | /˘·/˘·˘/ |
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.