Analysis of Blue Island Intersection

Carl Sandburg 1878 (Galesburg) – 1967 (Flat Rock)



Six streets come together here.
They feed people and wagons into the center.
In and out all day horses with thoughts of nose-bags,
Men with shovels, women with baskets and baby-buggies.
Six ends of streets and no sleep for them all day.
The people and wagons come and go, out and in.
Triangles of banks and drug stores watch.
The policemen whistle, the trolly cars bump:
Wheels, wheels, feet, feet, all day.

In the false dawn when the chickens blink
And the east shakes a lazy baby toe at tomorrow,
And the east fixes a lazy pink half-eye this way,
In the time when only one milk wagon crosses
These three streets, these six street ends,
It is the sleep time and they rest.
The triangle banks and the drug stores rest.
The policeman is gone, his star and gun sleep.
The owl car blutters along in a sleep walk.


Scheme XXXXAXXXA XXAXXBBXX
Poetic Form
Metre 1110101 111001001010 001111011111 11101011001010 11110111111 010010101100 10110111 0010100111 111111 001110101 0011010101101 0011001011111 001110111010 1111111 11011011 010100111 00101111011 0111010011
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 816
Words 152
Sentences 12
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 9, 9
Lines Amount 18
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 316
Words per stanza (avg) 75
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

45 sec read
131

Carl Sandburg

Carl Sandburg was an American writer and editor best known for poetry. more…

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