Masses
Among the mountains I wandered and saw blue haze and red crag and was amazed;On the beach where the long push under the endless tide maneuvers, I stood silent;Under the stars on the prairie watching the Dipper slant over the horizon's grass, I was full of thoughts.Great men, pageants of war and labor, soldiers and workers, mothers lifting their children—these all I touched, and felt the solemn thrill of them.And then one day I got a true look at the Poor, millions of the Poor, patient and toiling; more patient than crags, tides, and stars; innumerable, patient as the darkness of night—and all broken, humble ruins of nations.
Words in this poem
- crag n.
- The neck or throat [A form of craw: cf. D. kraag neck, collar, G. kragen. See Craw.]
- dipper n.
- One who, or that which, dips; especially, a vessel used to dip water or other liquid; a ladle.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Masses 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, Masses, in Chicago Poems (1916), text of Wikisource, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sandburg-chicago-poems/masses.html, id L28852.
Form and metre
Masses is 5 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Among the mountains I wandered and saw blue haze and red crag and was amazed; | 19 | ···/˘·/˘·········˘/ |
| On the beach where the long push under the endless tide maneuvers, I stood silent; | 20 | ··········/˘·˘/˘··/˘ |
| Under the stars on the prairie watching the Dipper slant over the horizon's grass, I was full of thoughts. | 26 | ······/˘/˘·/˘····˘/˘······ |
| Great men, pageants of war and labor, soldiers and workers, mothers lifting their children—these all I touched, and felt the solemn thrill of them. | 33 | ··/˘···/˘/˘·/˘/˘/˘·/˘·······/˘··· |
| And then one day I got a true look at the Poor, millions of the Poor, patient and toiling; more patient than crags, tides, and stars; innumerable, patient as the darkness of night—and all broken, humble ruins of nations. | 54 | ············/˘···/˘·/˘·/˘·····˘/˘˘˘/˘··/˘····/˘/˘/˘·/˘ |
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.