Ready to Kill
Ten minutes now I have been looking at this.I have gone by here before and wondered about it.This is a bronze memorial of a famous generalRiding horseback with a flag and a sword and a revolver on him.I want to smash the whole thing into a pile of junk to be hauled away to the scrap yard.I put it straight to you,After the farmer, the miner, the shop man, the factory hand, the fireman and the teamster,Have all been remembered with bronze memorials,Shaping them on the job of getting all of usSomething to eat and something to wear,When they stack a few silhouettesAgainst the skyHere in the park,And show the real huskies that are doing the work of the world, and feeding people instead of butchering them,Then maybe I will stand hereAnd look easy at this general of the army holding a flag in the air,And riding like hell on horsebackReady to kill anybody that gets in his way,Ready to run the red blood and slush the bowels of men all over the sweet new grass of the prairie.
Words in this poem
- wondered a.
- Having performed wonders; able to perform wonderful things.
- 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.]
- scrap n.
- Something scraped off; hence, a small piece; a bit; a fragment; a detached, incomplete portion. [OE. scrappe, fr. Icel. skrap trifle, cracking. See Scrape, v. t.]
- miner n.
- One who mines; a digger for metals, etc.; one engaged in the business of getting ore, coal, or precious stones, out of the earth; one who digs military mines; as, armies have sappers and miners. [Cf. F. mineur.]
- fireman n.
- A man whose business is to extinguish fires in towns; a member of a fire company.
- teamster n.
- One who drives a team.
- butchering n.
- The business of a butcher.
- maybe adv.
- Perhaps; possibly; peradventure. [For it may be.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Ready to Kill 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, Ready to Kill, in Chicago Poems (1916), text of Wikisource, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sandburg-chicago-poems/ready-to-kill.html, id L28902.
Form and metre
Ready to Kill is 19 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 ---------A----AA--- this · it · general · him · yard · you · teamster · memorials · us · wearA · silhouettes · sky · park · them · hereA · airA · horseback · way · prairie
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Ten minutes now I have been looking at this. | 11 | ·/˘····/˘·· |
| I have gone by here before and wondered about it. | 13 | ········/˘··· |
| This is a bronze memorial of a famous general | 15 | ····˘/˘˘··/˘/˘˘ |
| Riding horseback with a flag and a sword and a revolver on him. | 17 | /˘/·········˘/˘·· |
| I want to smash the whole thing into a pile of junk to be hauled away to the scrap yard. | 22 | ················˘/···· |
| I put it straight to you, | 6 | ······ |
| After the farmer, the miner, the shop man, the factory hand, the fireman and the teamster, | 23 | ···/˘·/˘····/˘˘··/˘··/˘ |
| Have all been remembered with bronze memorials, | 12 | ···˘/˘··˘/˘˘ |
| Shaping them on the job of getting all of us | 12 | /˘·····/˘··· |
| Something to eat and something to wear, | 9 | /˘···/˘·· |
| When they stack a few silhouettes | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Against the sky | 4 | ···· |
| Here in the park, | 4 | ···· |
| And show the real huskies that are doing the work of the world, and feeding people instead of butchering them, | 27 | ····/˘··/˘······/˘/˘˘/·/˘˘· |
| Then maybe I will stand here | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| And look easy at this general of the army holding a flag in the air, | 20 | ··/˘··/˘˘··/˘/˘····· |
| And riding like hell on horseback | 8 | ·/˘···/· |
| Ready to kill anybody that gets in his way, | 13 | /˘··/˘˘˘····· |
| Ready to run the red blood and slush the bowels of men all over the sweet new grass of the prairie. | 25 | /˘········/˘···········/˘ |
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.