Sub Terra
Where shall I find you,you my grotesque fellowsthat I seek everywhereto make up my band?None, not onewith the earthy tastes I require;the burrowing pride that risessubtly as on a bush in May.
Where are you this day,you my seven year locustswith cased wings?Ah my beauties how I long--!That harvestthat shall be your advent--thrusting up through the grass,up under the weedsanswering me,that shall be satisfying!The light shall leap and snapthat day as with a million lashes!
Oh, I have you; yesyou are about me in a sense:playing under the blue poolsthat are my windows,--but they shut you out still,there in the half light.
You to come with mepoking into negro houseswith their gloom and smell!In among childrenleaping around a dead dog!Mimickingonto the lawns of the rich!You!to go with me a-tip-toe,head down under heaven,nostrils lipping the wind!
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- subtly adv.
- In a subtle manner; slyly; artfully; cunningly.
- poking a.
- Drudging; servile.
- onto prep.
- On the top of; upon; on. See On to, under On, prep. [On + to. Cf. Into.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sub Terra 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, Sub Terra, in Al Que Quiere! (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51997, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/williams-al-que-quiere/sub-terra.html, id L01088.
Form and metre
Sub Terra is 37 lines in 4 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 80%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.8 syllables. 12 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 38% 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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Where shall I find you, | 5 | ····· |
| you my grotesque fellows | 6 | ··˘//˘ |
| that I seek everywhere | 6 | ···/˘· |
| to make up my band? | 5 | ····· |
| None, not one | 3 | ··· |
| with the earthy tastes I require; | 9 | ··/˘···/˘ |
| the burrowing pride that rises | 8 | ·/˘˘··/˘ |
| subtly as on a bush in May. | 9 | /˘˘······ |
| Where are you this day, | 5 | ····· |
| you my seven year locusts | 7 | ··/˘·/˘ |
| with cased wings? | 3 | ··· |
| Ah my beauties how I long--! | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| That harvest | 3 | ·/˘ |
| that shall be your advent-- | 6 | ····/· |
| thrusting up through the grass, | 6 | /˘···· |
| up under the weeds | 5 | ····· |
| answering me, | 4 | /˘˘· |
| that shall be satisfying! | 7 | ···/˘·˘ |
| The light shall leap and snap | 6 | ······ |
| that day as with a million lashes! | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| Oh, I have you; yes | 5 | ····· |
| you are about me in a sense: | 8 | ········ |
| playing under the blue pools | 7 | /˘····· |
| that are my windows,-- | 5 | ···/˘ |
| but they shut you out still, | 6 | ······ |
| there in the half light. | 5 | ····· |
| You to come with me | 5 | ····· |
| poking into negro houses | 8 | /˘··/˘/˘ |
| with their gloom and smell! | 5 | ····· |
| In among children | 5 | ···/˘ |
| leaping around a dead dog! | 7 | /˘····· |
| Mimicking | 3 | /˘˘ |
| onto the lawns of the rich! | 7 | /˘····· |
| You! | 1 | · |
| to go with me a-tip-toe, | 7 | ······· |
| head down under heaven, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| nostrils lipping the wind! | 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.