Overture to a Dance of Locomotives
William Carlos Williams 1883 (Rutherford) – 1963 (Rutherford)
Men with picked voices chant the names
of cities in a huge gallery: promises
that pull through descending stairways
to a deep rumbling.
The rubbing feet
of those coming to be carried quicken a
grey pavement into soft light that rocks
to and fro, under the domed ceiling,
across and across from pale
earthcolored walls of bare limestone.
Covertly the hands of a great clock
go round and round! Were they to
move quickly and at once the whole
secret would be out and the shuffling
of all ants be done forever.
A leaning pyramid of sunlight, narrowing
out at a high window, moves by the clock:
disaccordant hands straining out from
a center: inevitable postures infinitely
repeated--
two--twofour--twoeight!
Porters in red hats run on narrow platforms.
This way ma'am!
--important not to take
the wrong train!
Lights from the concrete
ceiling hang crooked but--
Poised horizontal
on glittering parallels the dingy cylinders
packed with a warm glow--inviting entry--
pull against the hour. But brakes can
hold a fixed posture till--
The whistle!
Not twoeight. Not twofour. Two!
Gliding windows. Colored cooks sweating
in a small kitchen. Taillights--
In time: twofour!
In time: twoeight!
--rivers are tunneled: trestles
cross oozy swampland: wheels repeating
the same gesture remain relatively
stationary: rails forever parallel
return on themselves infinitely.
The dance is sure.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 17, 2023
- 1:06 min read
- 170 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | AXXB CXXBXX DEXBF BDXGXCXXXXCXHXGXXH E BA FC ABGXGX |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,384 |
Words | 222 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 6, 5, 18, 1, 2, 2, 6 |
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"Overture to a Dance of Locomotives" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 24 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/39679/overture-to-a-dance-of-locomotives>.
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