Old Timers
I am an ancient reluctant conscript.
On the soup wagons of Xerxes I was a cleaner of pans.
On the march of Miltiades' phalanx I had a haft and head;I had a bristling gleaming spear-handle.
Red-headed Cæsar picked me for a teamster.He said, "Go to work, you Tuscan bastard,Rome calls for a man who can drive horses."
The units of conquest led by Charles the Twelfth,The whirling whimsical Napoleonic columns:They saw me one of the horseshoers.
I trimmed the feet of a white horse Bonaparte swept the night stars with.
Lincoln said, "Get into the game; your nation takes you."And I drove a wagon and team and I had my arm shot offAt Spottsylvania Court House.
I am an ancient reluctant conscript.
Words in this poem
- conscript a.
- Enrolled; written; registered. Conscript fathers (Rom. Antiq.), the senators of ancient Rome. When certain new senators were first enrolled with the [L. conscriptus, p.p. of conscribere to write together, to enroll; con- + scribere to write. See Scribe.]
- cleaner n.
- One who, or that which, cleans.
- haft n.
- A handle; that part of an instrument or vessel taken into the hand, and by which it is held and used; -- said chiefly of a knife, sword, or dagger; the hilt. [AS. hæft; akin to D. & G. heft, Icel. hepti, and to E. Heave, or have. Cf. Heft.]
- teamster n.
- One who drives a team.
- napoleonic a.
- Of or pertaining to Napoleon I., or his family; resembling, or having the qualities of, Napoleon I. Lowell.
- drove n.
- A collection of cattle driven, or cattle collected for driving; a number of animals, as oxen, sheep, or swine, driven in a body. [AS. draf, fr. drifan to drive. See Drive.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Old Timers 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, Old Timers, in Cornhuskers (1918), text of Wikisource, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sandburg-cornhuskers/old-timers.html, id L29089.
Form and metre
Old Timers is 15 lines in 8 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 72%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I am an ancient reluctant conscript. | 10 | ···/˘˘/˘/· |
| On the soup wagons of Xerxes I was a cleaner of pans. | 15 | ···/˘·/˘···/˘·· |
| On the march of Miltiades' phalanx I had a haft and head; | 14 | ······/˘······ |
| I had a bristling gleaming spear-handle. | 11 | ···/˘˘/˘·/˘ |
| Red-headed Cæsar picked me for a teamster. | 10 | ·/˘·····/˘ |
| He said, "Go to work, you Tuscan bastard, | 10 | ······/˘/˘ |
| Rome calls for a man who can drive horses." | 10 | ········/˘ |
| The units of conquest led by Charles the Twelfth, | 11 | ·/˘·/˘····· |
| The whirling whimsical Napoleonic columns: | 13 | ·/˘/˘˘˘·˘/˘/˘ |
| They saw me one of the horseshoers. | 9 | ········· |
| I trimmed the feet of a white horse Bonaparte swept the night stars with. | 16 | ········/˘······ |
| Lincoln said, "Get into the game; your nation takes you." | 13 | /˘·······/˘·· |
| And I drove a wagon and team and I had my arm shot off | 15 | ····/˘········· |
| At Spottsylvania Court House. | 7 | ······· |
| I am an ancient reluctant conscript. | 10 | ···/˘˘/˘/· |
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.