The Ogre
Sweet child,little girl with well shaped legsyou cannot touch the thoughtsI put over and under and around you.
This is fortunate for they wouldburn you to an ash otherwise.Your petals would be quite curled up.
This is all beyond you--no doubt,yet you do feel the brushingsof the fine needles;the tentative lines of your whole bodyprove it to me;so does your fear of me,your shyness;likewise the toy baby cartthat you are pushing--and besides, mother has begunto dress your hair in a knot.These are my excuses.
Words in this poem
- tentative a.
- Of or pertaining to a trial or trials; essaying; experimental. [L. tentare to try: cf. F. tentatif. See Tempt.]
- shyness n.
- The quality or state of being shy.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Ogre 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, The Ogre, in Al Que Quiere! (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51997, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/williams-al-que-quiere/the-ogre.html, id L01125.
Form and metre
The Ogre is 19 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.6 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 37% 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.
- 3 ----AA------ doubt · brushings · needles · body · meA · meA · shyness · cart · pushing · begun · knot · excuses
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Sweet child, | 2 | ·· |
| little girl with well shaped legs | 7 | /˘····· |
| you cannot touch the thoughts | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| I put over and under and around you. | 11 | ··········· |
| This is fortunate for they would | 8 | ··/˘˘··· |
| burn you to an ash otherwise. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Your petals would be quite curled up. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| This is all beyond you--no doubt, | 8 | ········ |
| yet you do feel the brushings | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| of the fine needles; | 5 | ···/˘ |
| the tentative lines of your whole body | 10 | ·/˘˘····/˘ |
| prove it to me; | 4 | ···· |
| so does your fear of me, | 6 | ······ |
| your shyness; | 3 | ·/˘ |
| likewise the toy baby cart | 7 | /···/˘· |
| that you are pushing-- | 5 | ···/˘ |
| and besides, mother has begun | 8 | ·˘//˘·˘/ |
| to dress your hair in a knot. | 7 | ······· |
| These are my excuses. | 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.