Foreign
Artsybashev is a Russian.I am an American.Let us wonder, my townspeople,if Artsybashev tends his own firesas I do, gets himself cursedfor the baby’s failure to thrive,loosens windows for the womanwho cleans his parlor--or has he neat servantsand a quiet library, anintellectual wife perhaps andno children,--an apartmentsomewhere in a back street orlives alone or with his motheror sister--
I wonder, my townspeople,if Artsybashev looks uponhimself the more concernedlyor succeeds any better than Iin laying the world.
Words in this poem
- townspeople n.
- The inhabitants of a town or city, especially in distinction from country people; townsfolk.
- cursed a.
- Deserving a curse; execrable; hateful; detestable; abominable.
- somewhere adv.
- In some place unknown or not specified; in one place or another.
- concernedly adv.
- In a concerned manner; solicitously; sympathetically.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Foreign 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, Foreign, in Al Que Quiere! (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51997, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/williams-al-que-quiere/foreign.html, id L01110.
Form and metre
Foreign is 20 lines in 2 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.2 syllables. 12 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 60% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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----- russian · american · townspeople · fires · cursed · thrive · womanA · parlor · servants · anA · and · apartment · or · mother · sister
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Artsybashev is a Russian. | 8 | ······/˘ |
| I am an American. | 7 | ···˘/˘˘ |
| Let us wonder, my townspeople, | 8 | ··/˘·/·˘ |
| if Artsybashev tends his own fires | 9 | ········/ |
| as I do, gets himself cursed | 8 | ····˘/·˘ |
| for the baby’s failure to thrive, | 8 | ··/˘/˘·· |
| loosens windows for the woman | 8 | /˘/˘··/˘ |
| who cleans his parlor-- | 5 | ···/˘ |
| or has he neat servants | 6 | ····/˘ |
| and a quiet library, an | 8 | ··/˘/·˘· |
| intellectual wife perhaps and | 8 | ·˘/˘·˘/· |
| no children,--an apartment | 7 | ·/˘·˘/˘ |
| somewhere in a back street or | 7 | /······ |
| lives alone or with his mother | 8 | ·˘/···/˘ |
| or sister-- | 3 | ·/˘ |
| I wonder, my townspeople, | 7 | ·/˘·/·˘ |
| if Artsybashev looks upon | 8 | ········ |
| himself the more concernedly | 8 | ˘/··˘/˘˘ |
| or succeeds any better than I | 9 | ·˘//˘/˘·· |
| in laying the world. | 5 | ·/˘·· |
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.