The Poor
By constantly tormenting themwith reminders of the lice intheir children's hair, theSchool Physician firstbrought their hatred down on him,But by this familiaritythey grew used to him, and so,at last,took him for their friend and adviser.
About this text
The Poor 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, The Poor, in Sour Grapes (1921), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #35667, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/williams-sour-grapes/the-poor.html, id L01169.
Form and metre
The Poor is 9 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.6 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 56% 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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| By constantly tormenting them | 8 | ·/˘˘/·˘· |
| with reminders of the lice in | 8 | ·˘/˘···· |
| their children's hair, the | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| School Physician first | 5 | ·˘/˘· |
| brought their hatred down on him, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| But by this familiarity | 8 | ···˘·/˘˘ |
| they grew used to him, and so, | 7 | ······· |
| at last, | 2 | ·· |
| took him for their friend and adviser. | 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.