Portrait of a Young Man with a Bad Heart
Have I seen her?Only through the windowacross the street.
If I go meeting heron the cornersome damned foolwill go blabbing itto the old man andshe’ll get hell.He’s a queer old bastard!Every time he sees meyou’d thinkI wanted to kill him.But I figure it outit’s best to let thingsstay as they are--for a while at least.
It’s hardgiving up the thingyou want mostin the world, but with thisdamned pump of mineliable to give out ...
Words in this poem
- damned a.
- Sentenced to punishment in a future state; condemned; consigned to perdition.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Portrait of a Young Man with a Bad Heart 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, Portrait of a Young Man with a Bad Heart, in Al Que Quiere! (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51997, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/williams-al-que-quiere/portrait-of-a-young-man-with-a-bad-heart.html, id L01120.
Form and metre
Portrait of a Young Man with a Bad Heart is 23 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is trochaic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 4.7 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 65% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic trimeter.
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.
- 2 A-----------A- herA · corner · fool · it · and · hell · bastard · me · think · him · out · things · areA · least
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Have I seen her? | 4 | ···· |
| Only through the window | 6 | /˘··/˘ |
| across the street. | 4 | ˘/·· |
| If I go meeting her | 6 | ···/˘· |
| on the corner | 4 | ··/˘ |
| some damned fool | 3 | ··· |
| will go blabbing it | 5 | ····· |
| to the old man and | 5 | ····· |
| she’ll get hell. | 3 | ··· |
| He’s a queer old bastard! | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Every time he sees me | 7 | /˘˘···· |
| you’d think | 2 | ·· |
| I wanted to kill him. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| But I figure it out | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| it’s best to let things | 5 | ····· |
| stay as they are-- | 4 | ···· |
| for a while at least. | 5 | ····· |
| It’s hard | 2 | ·· |
| giving up the thing | 5 | /˘··· |
| you want most | 3 | ··· |
| in the world, but with this | 6 | ······ |
| damned pump of mine | 4 | ···· |
| liable to give out ... | 6 | /˘˘··· |
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.