The Great Hunt
I cannot tell you now;When the wind's drive and whirlBlow me along no longer,And the wind's a whisper at last—Maybe I'll tell you then—some other time.
When the rose's flash to the sunsetReels to the rack and the twist,And the rose is a red bygone,When the face I love is goingAnd the gate to the end shall clang,And it's no use to beckon or say, "So long"—Maybe I'll tell you then—some other time.
I never knew any more beautiful than you:I have hunted you under my thoughts,I have broken down under the windAnd into the roses looking for you.I shall never find anygreater than you.
Words in this poem
- maybe adv.
- Perhaps; possibly; peradventure. [For it may be.]
- bygone n.
- Something gone by or past; a past event.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- clang v. t.
- To strike together so as to produce a ringing metallic sound. [L. clangere; akin to Gr. clank.]
- beckon v. t.
- To make a significant sign to; hence, to summon, as by a motion of the hand.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Great Hunt 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, The Great Hunt, in Chicago Poems (1916), text of Wikisource, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sandburg-chicago-poems/the-great-hunt.html, id L28940.
Form and metre
The Great Hunt is 20 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.
- 2 ---AAA-- sunset · twist · bygone · goingA · clangA · longA · then · time
- 3 A--A-A youA · thoughts · wind · youA · any · youA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I cannot tell you now; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| When the wind's drive and whirl | 6 | ······ |
| Blow me along no longer, | 7 | ··˘/·/˘ |
| And the wind's a whisper at last— | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Maybe I'll tell you then— | 6 | /˘···· |
| some other time. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| When the rose's flash to the sunset | 9 | ··/˘···/· |
| Reels to the rack and the twist, | 7 | ······· |
| And the rose is a red bygone, | 8 | ······/· |
| When the face I love is going | 8 | ······/˘ |
| And the gate to the end shall clang, | 8 | ········ |
| And it's no use to beckon or say, "So long"— | 11 | ·····/˘···· |
| Maybe I'll tell you then— | 6 | /˘···· |
| some other time. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| I never knew any more beautiful than you: | 12 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘˘·· |
| I have hunted you under my thoughts, | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| I have broken down under the wind | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| And into the roses looking for you. | 10 | ····/˘/˘·· |
| I shall never find any | 7 | ··/˘·/˘ |
| greater than you. | 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.