Waiting
When I am alone I am happy.The air is cool. The sky isflecked and splashed and woundwith color. The crimson phalloiof the sassafrass leaveshang crowded before mein shoals on the heavy branches.When I reach my doorstepI am greeted bythe happy shrieks of my childrenand my heart sinks.I am crushed.
Are not my children as dear to meas falling leaves ormust one become stupidto grow older?It seems much as if Sorrowhad tripped up my heels.Let us see, let us see!What did I plan to say to herwhen it should happen to meas it has happened now?
Words in this poem
- sassafrass n.
- An American tree of the Laurel family (Sassafras officinale); also, the bark of the roots, which has an aromatic smell and taste. [F. sassafras (cf. It. sassafrasso, sassafras, Sp. sasafras, salsafras, salsifrax, salsifragia, saxifragia), fr. L. saxifraga saxofrage. See Saxifrage.]
- doorstep n.
- The stone or plank forming a step before an outer door.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Waiting 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, Waiting, in Sour Grapes (1921), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #35667, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/williams-sour-grapes/waiting.html, id L01176.
Form and metre
Waiting is 22 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.3 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 64% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic 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--- happy · is · wound · phalloi · leaves · meA · branches · doorstep · byA · children · sinks · crushed
- 2 AB----ABA- meA · orB · stupid · older · sorrow · heels · seeA · herB · meA · now
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| When I am alone I am happy. | 9 | ···˘/··/˘ |
| The air is cool. The sky is | 7 | ······· |
| flecked and splashed and wound | 5 | ····· |
| with color. The crimson phalloi | 8 | ·/˘·/˘·· |
| of the sassafrass leaves | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| hang crowded before me | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| in shoals on the heavy branches. | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| When I reach my doorstep | 6 | ····/· |
| I am greeted by | 5 | ··/˘· |
| the happy shrieks of my children | 8 | ·/˘···/˘ |
| and my heart sinks. | 4 | ···· |
| I am crushed. | 3 | ··· |
| Are not my children as dear to me | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| as falling leaves or | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| must one become stupid | 6 | ··˘//˘ |
| to grow older? | 4 | ··/˘ |
| It seems much as if Sorrow | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| had tripped up my heels. | 5 | ····· |
| Let us see, let us see! | 6 | ······ |
| What did I plan to say to her | 8 | ········ |
| when it should happen to me | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| as it has happened now? | 6 | ···/˘· |
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.