Interior
In the cool of the night timeThe clocks pick off the pointsAnd the mainsprings loosen.They will need winding.One of these days...they will need winding.
Rabelais in red boards,Walt Whitman in green,Hugo in ten-cent paper covers,Here they stand on shelvesIn the cool of the night timeAnd there is nothing...To be said against them...Or for them...In the cool of the night timeAnd the clocks.
A man in pigeon-gray pyjamas.The open window begins at his feetAnd goes taller than his head.Eight feet high is the pattern.
Moon and mist make an oblong layout.Silver at the man's bare feet.He swings one foot in a moon silver.And it costs nothing.
One more day of bread and work.One more day...so much rags...The man barefoot in moon silverMutters "You" and "You"To things hiddenIn the cool of the night time,In Rabelais, Whitman, Hugo,In an oblong of moon mist.
Out from the window...prairielands.Moon mist whitens a golf ground.Whiter yet is a limestone quarry.The crickets keep on chirring.
Switch engines of the Great WesternSidetrack box cars, make up trainsFor Weehawken, Oskaloosa, Saskatchewan;The cattle, the coal, the corn, must goIn the night...on the prairielands.
Chuff-chuff go the pulses.They beat in the cool of the night time.Chuff-chuff and chuff-chuff...These heartbeats travel the night a mileAnd touch the moon silver at the windowAnd the bones of the man.It costs nothing.
Rabelais in red boards,Whitman in green,Hugo in ten-cent paper covers,Here they stand on shelvesIn the cool of the night timeAnd the clocks.
Words in this poem
- barefoot a.
- With the feet bare; without shoes or stockings.
- sidetrack v. t.
- To transfer to a siding from a main line of track.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Interior is in the public domain. This text is taken from Cornhuskers, 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, Interior, in Cornhuskers (1918), text of Wikisource, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sandburg-cornhuskers/interior.html, id L29038.
Form and metre
Interior is 54 lines in 9 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 74%).
See other poems in trochaic tetrameter.
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 time · points · loosen · windingA · days · windingA
- 2 ----A-BBA- boards · green · covers · shelves · timeA · nothing · themB · themB · timeA · clocks
- 7 A-A-- westernA · trains · saskatchewanA · go · prairielands
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. Read against trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| In the cool of the night time | 7 | ······· |
| The clocks pick off the points | 6 | ······ |
| And the mainsprings loosen. | 6 | ····/˘ |
| They will need winding. | 5 | ···/˘ |
| One of these days... | 4 | ···· |
| they will need winding. | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Rabelais in red boards, | 6 | ······ |
| Walt Whitman in green, | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| Hugo in ten-cent paper covers, | 9 | /˘···/˘/˘ |
| Here they stand on shelves | 5 | ····· |
| In the cool of the night time | 7 | ······· |
| And there is nothing... | 5 | ···/˘ |
| To be said against them... | 6 | ······ |
| Or for them... | 3 | ··· |
| In the cool of the night time | 7 | ······· |
| And the clocks. | 3 | ··· |
| A man in pigeon-gray pyjamas. | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| The open window begins at his feet | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘/··· |
| And goes taller than his head. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Eight feet high is the pattern. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Moon and mist make an oblong layout. | 9 | ·····/˘/· |
| Silver at the man's bare feet. | 7 | /˘····· |
| He swings one foot in a moon silver. | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| And it costs nothing. | 5 | ···/˘ |
| One more day of bread and work. | 7 | ······· |
| One more day...so much rags... | 6 | ······ |
| The man barefoot in moon silver | 8 | ··/···/˘ |
| Mutters "You" and "You" | 5 | /˘··· |
| To things hidden | 4 | ··/˘ |
| In the cool of the night time, | 7 | ······· |
| In Rabelais, Whitman, Hugo, | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| In an oblong of moon mist. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Out from the window...prairielands. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Moon mist whitens a golf ground. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Whiter yet is a limestone quarry. | 9 | /˘···/·/˘ |
| The crickets keep on chirring. | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Switch engines of the Great Western | 8 | ·/˘···/˘ |
| Sidetrack box cars, make up trains | 7 | /······ |
| For Weehawken, Oskaloosa, Saskatchewan; | 12 | ··/˘····˘/˘· |
| The cattle, the coal, the corn, must go | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| In the night...on the prairielands. | 8 | ········ |
| Chuff-chuff go the pulses. | 6 | ····/˘ |
| They beat in the cool of the night time. | 9 | ········· |
| Chuff-chuff and chuff-chuff... | 5 | ····· |
| These heartbeats travel the night a mile | 9 | ·/·/˘···· |
| And touch the moon silver at the window | 10 | ····/˘··/˘ |
| And the bones of the man. | 6 | ······ |
| It costs nothing. | 4 | ··/˘ |
| Rabelais in red boards, | 6 | ······ |
| Whitman in green, | 4 | /˘·· |
| Hugo in ten-cent paper covers, | 9 | /˘···/˘/˘ |
| Here they stand on shelves | 5 | ····· |
| In the cool of the night time | 7 | ······· |
| And the clocks. | 3 | ··· |
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.