Also

William Carlos Williams (1883–1963) · 1917

Free verse · 5 lines · from Al Que Quiere!

the set piecesof your faces stir me--leading citizens--but notin the same way.

About this text

Also 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, Also, in Al Que Quiere! (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51997, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/williams-al-que-quiere/also.html, id L01099.

Form and metre

Also is 5 lines in a single stanza. The lines average 4.2 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.

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. How this is done.

LineSyl.Stress
the set pieces4··/˘
of your faces stir me--6··/˘··
leading citizens--5/˘/˘˘
but not2··
in the same way.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.

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