Spouts
In this world ofas fine a pair of breastsas ever I sawthe fountain inMadison Squarespouts up of watera white treethat dies and livesas the rocking waterin the basinturns from the stonerimback upon the jetand rising therereflectively drops down again.
About this text
Spouts 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, Spouts, in Sour Grapes (1921), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #35667, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/williams-sour-grapes/spouts.html, id L01186.
Form and metre
Spouts is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 4.9 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 93% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic dimeter.
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 ----AB--BC--AC of · breasts · saw · in · squareA · waterB · tree · lives · waterB · basinC · stonerim · jet · thereA · againC
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 dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| In this world of | 4 | ···· |
| as fine a pair of breasts | 6 | ······ |
| as ever I saw | 4 | ·/·· |
| the fountain in | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Madison Square | 4 | /˘˘· |
| spouts up of water | 5 | ···/˘ |
| a white tree | 3 | ··· |
| that dies and lives | 4 | ···· |
| as the rocking water | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| in the basin | 4 | ··/˘ |
| turns from the stonerim | 6 | ······ |
| back upon the jet | 5 | ····· |
| and rising there | 4 | ·/˘· |
| reflectively drops down again. | 9 | ·······˘/ |
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.