Passers-by
Passers-by,Out of your many facesFlash memories to meNow at the day endAway from the sidewalksWhere your shoe soles traveledAnd your voices rose and blentTo form the city's afternoon roarHindering an old silence.
Passers-by,I remember lean ones among you,Throats in the clutch of a hope,Lips written over with strivings,Mouths that kiss only for love,Records of great wishes slept with,Held longAnd prayed and toiled for:
Yes,Written onYour mouthsAnd your throatsI read themWhen you passed by.
Words in this poem
- blent p. p.
- Blinded. Also (Chaucer), 3d sing. pres. Blindeth.
- afternoon n.
- The part of the day which follows noon, between noon and evening.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Passers-by 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, Passers-by, in Chicago Poems (1916), text of Wikisource, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sandburg-chicago-poems/passers-by.html, id L28859.
Form and metre
Passers-by is 23 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.
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------ byA · faces · meA · end · sidewalks · traveled · blent · roar · silence
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Passers-by, | 3 | /˘· |
| Out of your many faces | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Flash memories to me | 6 | ·/˘˘·· |
| Now at the day end | 5 | ····· |
| Away from the sidewalks | 6 | ˘/··/· |
| Where your shoe soles traveled | 6 | ····/˘ |
| And your voices rose and blent | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| To form the city's afternoon roar | 9 | ···/˘·˘/· |
| Hindering an old silence. | 7 | /˘˘··/˘ |
| Passers-by, | 3 | /˘· |
| I remember lean ones among you, | 9 | ·˘/˘····· |
| Throats in the clutch of a hope, | 7 | ······· |
| Lips written over with strivings, | 8 | ·/˘···/˘ |
| Mouths that kiss only for love, | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| Records of great wishes slept with, | 8 | ˘/··/˘·· |
| Held long | 2 | ·· |
| And prayed and toiled for: | 5 | ····· |
| Yes, | 1 | · |
| Written on | 3 | /˘· |
| Your mouths | 2 | ·· |
| And your throats | 3 | ··· |
| I read them | 3 | ··· |
| When you passed by. | 4 | ···· |
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.