The Old Men
Old men who have studiedevery leg showin the cityOld men cut from touchby the perfumed music--polished or fleeced skullsthat stand beforethe whole theaterin silent attitudesof attention,--old men who have taken precedenceover young menand even over dark-facedhusbands whose mindsare a street with arc-lights.Solitary old men for whomwe find no excuses--I bow my head in shamefor those who malign you.Old menthe peaceful beer of impotencebe yours!
Words in this poem
- fleeced a.
- Furnished with a fleece; as, a sheep is well fleeced.
- impotence n.
- The quality or condition of being impotent; want of strength or power, animal, intellectual, or moral; weakness; feebleness; inability; imbecility. [L. impotenia inability, poverty, want of moderation. See Impotent.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Old Men 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 Old Men, in Al Que Quiere! (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51997, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/williams-al-que-quiere/the-old-men.html, id L01127.
Form and metre
The Old Men is 22 lines in a single verse paragraph. 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%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.4 syllables. 8 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 73% 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.
- 1 ---------A-A-------A-- studied · show · city · touch · music · skulls · before · theater · attitudes · attentionA · precedence · menA · faced · minds · lights · whom · excuses · shame · you · menA · impotence · yours
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Old men who have studied | 6 | ····/˘ |
| every leg show | 5 | /˘˘·· |
| in the city | 4 | ··/˘ |
| Old men cut from touch | 5 | ····· |
| by the perfumed music-- | 6 | ··˘//˘ |
| polished or fleeced skulls | 5 | /˘··· |
| that stand before | 4 | ···· |
| the whole theater | 5 | ··/˘˘ |
| in silent attitudes | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| of attention,-- | 4 | ·˘/˘ |
| old men who have taken precedence | 9 | ····/˘/˘˘ |
| over young men | 4 | ···· |
| and even over dark-faced | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| husbands whose minds | 4 | /˘·· |
| are a street with arc-lights. | 6 | ······ |
| Solitary old men for whom | 8 | /˘·˘···· |
| we find no excuses-- | 6 | ···˘/˘ |
| I bow my head in shame | 6 | ······ |
| for those who malign you. | 6 | ···˘/· |
| Old men | 2 | ·· |
| the peaceful beer of impotence | 8 | ·/˘··/˘˘ |
| be yours! | 2 | ·· |
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.