On the Way
Little one, you have been buzzing in the books,Flittering in the newspapers and drinking beer with lawyersAnd amid the educated men of the clubs you have been getting an earful of speech from trained tongues.Take an earful from me once, go with me on a hikeAlong sand stretches on the great inland sea hereAnd while the eastern breeze blows on us and the restless surgeOf the lake waves on the breakwater breaks with an ever fresh monotone,Let us ask ourselves: What is truth? what do you or I know?How much do the wisest of the world's men know about where the massed human procession is going?
You have heard the mob laughed at?I ask you: Is not the mob rough as the mountains are rough?And all things human rise from the mob and relapse and rise again as rain to the sea?
Words in this poem
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- hike v. i.
- To hike one's self; specif., to go with exertion or effort; to tramp; to march laboriously. [Dial. or Colloq.]
- breakwater n.
- Any structure or contrivance, as a mole, or a wall at the mouth of a harbor, to break the force of waves, and afford protection from their violence.
- monotone n.
- A single unvaried tone or sound. [See Monotonous, Monotony.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
On the Way 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, On the Way, in Chicago Poems (1916), text of Wikisource, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sandburg-chicago-poems/on-the-way.html, id L28901.
Form and metre
On the Way is 12 lines in 2 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Little one, you have been buzzing in the books, | 11 | /˘····/˘··· |
| Flittering in the newspapers and drinking beer with lawyers | 15 | ·····/·˘·/˘··/˘ |
| And amid the educated men of the clubs you have been getting an earful of speech from trained tongues. | 25 | ·˘/·/˘·˘·······/˘········ |
| Take an earful from me once, go with me on a hike | 13 | ············· |
| Along sand stretches on the great inland sea here | 12 | ˘/·/˘···/··· |
| And while the eastern breeze blows on us and the restless surge | 14 | ···/˘······/˘· |
| Of the lake waves on the breakwater breaks with an ever fresh monotone, | 18 | ······/·˘···/˘·/˘· |
| Let us ask ourselves: What is truth? what do you or I know? | 15 | ···˘˘/········· |
| How much do the wisest of the world's men know about where the massed human procession is going? | 24 | ····/˘··········/˘˘/˘·/˘ |
| You have heard the mob laughed at? | 7 | ······· |
| I ask you: Is not the mob rough as the mountains are rough? | 14 | ··········/˘·· |
| And all things human rise from the mob and relapse and rise again as rain to the sea? | 21 | ···/˘·····˘/··˘/····· |
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.