Overture to a Dance of Locomotives II
Two--twofour--twoeight!Porters in red hats run on narrow platforms.This way ma'm!--important not to takethe wrong train!Lights from the concreteceiling hang crooked but--Poised horizontalon glittering parallels the dingy cylinderspacked with a warm glow--inviting entry--pull against the hour. But brakes canhold a fixed posture till--The whistle!
In time: twofour!In time: twoeight!
--rivers are tunneled: trestlescross oozy swampland: wheels repeatingthe same gesture remain relativelystationary: rails forever parallelreturn on themselves infinitely.The dance is sure.
About this text
Overture to a Dance of Locomotives II 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 II, in Sour Grapes (1921), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #35667, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/williams-sour-grapes/overture-to-a-dance-of-locomotives-ii.html, id L01151.
Form and metre
Overture to a Dance of Locomotives II is 21 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.7 syllables. 8 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 43% 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.
- 1 -------A---AA twoeight · platforms · ma'm · take · train · concrete · but · horizontalA · cylinders · entry · can · tillA · whistleA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Two--twofour--twoeight! | 4 | ···· |
| Porters in red hats run on narrow platforms. | 11 | /˘·····/˘/· |
| This way ma'm! | 3 | ··· |
| --important not to take | 6 | ˘/˘··· |
| the wrong train! | 3 | ··· |
| Lights from the concrete | 5 | ···˘/ |
| ceiling hang crooked but-- | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| Poised horizontal | 5 | ··˘/˘ |
| on glittering parallels the dingy cylinders | 13 | ·/˘˘/˘··/˘/˘˘ |
| packed with a warm glow--inviting entry-- | 10 | ·····˘/˘/˘ |
| pull against the hour. But brakes can | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| hold a fixed posture till-- | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The whistle! | 3 | ·/˘ |
| In time: twofour! | 4 | ···· |
| In time: twoeight! | 3 | ··· |
| --rivers are tunneled: trestles | 7 | /˘·/˘/˘ |
| cross oozy swampland: wheels repeating | 9 | ·/˘···˘/˘ |
| the same gesture remain relatively | 10 | ··/˘˘//˘˘˘ |
| stationary: rails forever parallel | 11 | /˘·˘·˘/˘/˘· |
| return on themselves infinitely. | 9 | ˘/·˘//˘˘˘ |
| The dance is sure. | 4 | ···· |
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.