A Portrait in Greys
Will it never be possibleto separate you from your greyness?Must you be always sinking backwardinto your grey-brown landscapes--and treesalways in the distance, always againsta grey sky?Must I be alwaysmoving counter to you? Is there no placewhere we can be at peace togetherand the motion of our drawing apartbe altogether taken up?I see myselfstanding upon your shoulders touchinga grey, broken sky--but you, weighted down with me,yet gripping my ankles,--movelaboriously on,where it is level and undisturbed by colors.
Words in this poem
- altogether adv.
- All together; conjointly. [OE. altogedere; al all + togedere together. See Together.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Portrait in Greys is in the public domain. This text is taken from A Book of Poems, Al Que Quiere!, Project Gutenberg ebook #51997; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Carlos Williams, A Portrait in Greys, in Al Que Quiere! (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51997, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/williams-al-que-quiere/a-portrait-in-greys.html, id L01130.
Form and metre
A Portrait in Greys is 18 lines in a single stanza. 87% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.8 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 61% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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--- possible · greyness · backward · trees · against · skyA · always · place · together · apart · up · myself · touching · skyA · meA · move · on · colors
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Will it never be possible | 8 | ··/˘·/˘˘ |
| to separate you from your greyness? | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| Must you be always sinking backward | 9 | ···/·/˘/˘ |
| into your grey-brown landscapes--and trees | 9 | ·····/··· |
| always in the distance, always against | 10 | /···/˘/··· |
| a grey sky? | 3 | ··· |
| Must I be always | 5 | ···/· |
| moving counter to you? Is there no place | 10 | /˘/˘······ |
| where we can be at peace together | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| and the motion of our drawing apart | 11 | ··/˘·/˘/˘˘/ |
| be altogether taken up? | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
| I see myself | 4 | ···/ |
| standing upon your shoulders touching | 9 | /˘···/˘/˘ |
| a grey, broken sky-- | 5 | ··/˘· |
| but you, weighted down with me, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| yet gripping my ankles,--move | 7 | ·/˘·/˘· |
| laboriously on, | 6 | ˘/˘˘˘· |
| where it is level and undisturbed by colors. | 12 | ···/˘··˘/·/˘ |
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.