Mamie
Mamie beat her head against the bars of a little Indiana town and dreamed of romance and big things off somewhere the way the railroad trains all ran.She could see the smoke of the engines get lost down where the streaks of steel flashed in the sun and when the newspapers came in on the morning mail she knew there was a big Chicago far off, where all the trains ran.She got tired of the barber shop boys and the post office chatter and the church gossip and the old pieces the band played on the Fourth of July and Decoration DayAnd sobbed at her fate and beat her head against the bars and was going to kill herselfWhen the thought came to her that if she was going to die she might as well die struggling for a clutch of romance among the streets of Chicago.She has a job now at six dollars a week in the basement of the Boston StoreAnd even now she beats her head against the bars in the same old way and wonders if there is a bigger place the railroads run to from Chicago where maybe there isromanceand big thingsand real dreamsthat never go smash.
Words in this poem
- somewhere adv.
- In some place unknown or not specified; in one place or another.
- barber n.
- One whose occupation it is to shave or trim the beard, and to cut and dress the hair of his patrons. Barber's itch. See under Itch. [OE. barbour, OF. barbeor, F. barbier, as if fr. an assumed L. barbator, fr. barba beard. See 1st Barb.]
- bigger a.
- , compar. of Big.
- maybe adv.
- Perhaps; possibly; peradventure. [For it may be.]
- smash v. t.
- To break in pieces by violence; to dash to pieces; to crush. [Cf. Sw. smisk a blow, stroke, smiska to strike, dial. Sw. smaske to kiss with a noise, and E. smack a loud kiss, a slap.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Mamie 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, Mamie, in Chicago Poems (1916), text of Wikisource, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sandburg-chicago-poems/mamie.html, id L28879.
Form and metre
Mamie is 11 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 AA--------- ranA · ranA · day · herself · chicago · store · is · romance · things · dreams · smash
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Mamie beat her head against the bars of a little Indiana town and dreamed of romance and big things off somewhere the way the railroad trains all ran. | 37 | /˘·········/˘·˘/˘····˘/····/····/···· |
| She could see the smoke of the engines get lost down where the streaks of steel flashed in the sun and when the newspapers came in on the morning mail she knew there was a big Chicago far off, where all the trains ran. | 50 | ·······/˘···············/·˘····/˘·······˘/········ |
| She got tired of the barber shop boys and the post office chatter and the church gossip and the old pieces the band played on the Fourth of July and Decoration Day | 42 | ··/˘··/˘·····/˘/˘···/˘···/˘········/··˘/˘· |
| And sobbed at her fate and beat her head against the bars and was going to kill herself | 21 | ···············/˘··˘/ |
| When the thought came to her that if she was going to die she might as well die struggling for a clutch of romance among the streets of Chicago. | 36 | ··········/˘·······/˘˘····˘/·····˘/· |
| She has a job now at six dollars a week in the basement of the Boston Store | 20 | ·······/˘····/˘··/˘· |
| And even now she beats her head against the bars in the same old way and wonders if there is a bigger place the railroads run to from Chicago where maybe there is | 41 | ·/˘···············/˘····/˘··/····˘/··/˘·· |
| romance | 2 | ˘/ |
| and big things | 3 | ··· |
| and real dreams | 3 | ··· |
| that never go smash. | 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.