Momus
Momus is the name men give your face,The brag of its tone, like a long low steamboat whistleFinding a way mid mist on a shoreland,Where gray rocks let the salt water shatter sprayAgainst horizons purple, silent.
Yes, Momus,Men have flung your face in bronzeTo gaze in gargoyle downward on a street-whirl of folk.They were artists did this, shaped your sad mouth,Gave you a tall forehead slanted with calm, broad wisdom;All your lips to the corners and your cheeks to the high bonesThrown over and through with a smile that forever wishes and wishes, purple, silent, fled from all the iron things of life, evaded like a sought bandit, gone into dreams, by God.
I wonder, Momus,Whether shadows of the dead sit somewhere and look with deep laughterOn men who play in terrible earnest the old, known, solemn repetitions of history.A droning monotone soft as sea laughter hovers from your kindliness of bronze,You give me the human ease of a mountain peak, purple, silent;Granite shoulders heaving above the earth curves,Careless eye-witness of the spawning tides of men and womenSwarming always in a drift of millions to the dust of toil, the salt of tears,And blood drops of undiminishing war.
Words in this poem
- momus n.
- The god of mockery and censure.
- gargoyle n.
- A spout projecting from the roof gutter of a building, often carved grotesquely. [Written also gargle, gargyle, and gurgoyle.] [OE. garguilie, gargouille, cf. Sp. gárgola, prob. fr. the same source as F. gorge throat, influenced by L. gargarizare to gargle. See Gorge and cf. Gargle, Garg]
- folk n.
- In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
- bandit n.
- An outlaw; a brigand. [It. bandito outlaw, p.p. of bandire to proclaim, to banish, to proscribe, LL. bandire, bannire. See Ban an edict, and cf. Banish.]
- somewhere adv.
- In some place unknown or not specified; in one place or another.
- monotone n.
- A single unvaried tone or sound. [See Monotonous, Monotony.]
- kindliness n.
- Natural inclination; natural course.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Momus 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, Momus, in Chicago Poems (1916), text of Wikisource, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sandburg-chicago-poems/momus.html, id L28931.
Form and metre
Momus is 21 lines in 3 stanzas.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Momus is the name men give your face, | 9 | /˘······· |
| The brag of its tone, like a long low steamboat whistle | 13 | ·········/·/˘ |
| Finding a way mid mist on a shoreland, | 11 | /˘········· |
| Where gray rocks let the salt water shatter spray | 11 | ······/˘/˘· |
| Against horizons purple, silent. | 9 | ··˘/˘/˘/˘ |
| Yes, Momus, | 3 | ·/˘ |
| Men have flung your face in bronze | 7 | ······· |
| To gaze in gargoyle downward on a street-whirl of folk. | 13 | ···/·/˘······ |
| They were artists did this, shaped your sad mouth, | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| Gave you a tall forehead slanted with calm, broad wisdom; | 13 | ····/˘/˘···/˘ |
| All your lips to the corners and your cheeks to the high bones | 14 | ·····/˘······· |
| Thrown over and through with a smile that forever wishes and wishes, purple, silent, fled from all the iron things of life, evaded like a sought bandit, gone into dreams, by God. | 44 | ·········˘/˘/˘·/˘/˘/˘····/˘···˘/˘···/˘······ |
| I wonder, Momus, | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| Whether shadows of the dead sit somewhere and look with deep laughter | 16 | ··/·····/·····/˘ |
| On men who play in terrible earnest the old, known, solemn repetitions of history. | 23 | ·····/˘˘/˘···/˘·˘/˘·/˘˘ |
| A droning monotone soft as sea laughter hovers from your kindliness of bronze, | 20 | ·/˘/˘····/˘/˘··/˘˘·· |
| You give me the human ease of a mountain peak, purple, silent; | 16 | ····/˘···/˘·/˘/˘ |
| Granite shoulders heaving above the earth curves, | 11 | /˘/˘/˘····· |
| Careless eye-witness of the spawning tides of men and women | 15 | /˘·/˘··/˘····/˘ |
| Swarming always in a drift of millions to the dust of toil, the salt of tears, | 19 | /˘/·····/˘········· |
| And blood drops of undiminishing war. | 10 | ·········· |
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.