Overture to a Dance of Locomotives I
Men with picked voices chant the namesof cities in a huge gallery: promisesthat pull through descending stairwaysto a deep rumbling.The rubbing feetof those coming to be carried quicken agrey pavement into soft light that rocksto and fro, under the domed ceiling,across and across from paleearthcoloured walls of bare limestone.
Covertly the hands of a great clockgo round and round! Were they tomove quickly and at once the wholesecret would be out and the shufflingof all ants be done forever.
A leaning pyramid of sunlight, narrowingout at a high window, moves by the clock:disaccordant hands straining out froma center: inevitable postures infinitelyrepeated--
Words in this poem
- rumbling
- a. & n. from Rumble, v. i.
- domed a.
- Furnished with a dome; shaped like a dome.
- covertly adv.
- Secretly; in private; insidiously.
- narrowing n.
- The act of contracting, or of making or becoming less in breadth or extent.
- disaccordant a.
- Not accordant. Fabyan.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Overture to a Dance of Locomotives I is in the public domain. This text is taken from Sour Grapes: A Book of Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #35667; 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, Overture to a Dance of Locomotives I, in Sour Grapes (1921), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #35667, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/williams-sour-grapes/overture-to-a-dance-of-locomotives-i.html, id L01150.
Form and metre
Overture to a Dance of Locomotives I is 20 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 75%). 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.6 syllables. 8 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 70% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic 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 -AA------- names · promisesA · stairwaysA · rumbling · feet · a · rocks · ceiling · pale · limestone
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 iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Men with picked voices chant the names | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| of cities in a huge gallery: promises | 12 | ·/˘···/˘˘/˘˘ |
| that pull through descending stairways | 8 | ···˘/˘/· |
| to a deep rumbling. | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| The rubbing feet | 4 | ·/˘· |
| of those coming to be carried quicken a | 11 | ··/˘··/˘/˘· |
| grey pavement into soft light that rocks | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| to and fro, under the domed ceiling, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| across and across from pale | 7 | ˘/·˘/·· |
| earthcoloured walls of bare limestone. | 8 | ······/· |
| Covertly the hands of a great clock | 9 | ˘/˘······ |
| go round and round! Were they to | 7 | ······· |
| move quickly and at once the whole | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| secret would be out and the shuffling | 9 | /˘·····/˘ |
| of all ants be done forever. | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| A leaning pyramid of sunlight, narrowing | 12 | ·/˘/˘˘·/·/˘˘ |
| out at a high window, moves by the clock: | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| disaccordant hands straining out from | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| a center: inevitable postures infinitely | 14 | ·/˘˘/˘˘˘/˘/˘˘˘ |
| repeated-- | 3 | ˘/˘ |
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.