Analysis of Cool Tombs

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



When Abraham Lincoln was shoveled into the tombs he forgot
the copperheads and the assassin . . . in the dust, in the
cool tombs.

And Ulysses Grant lost all thought of con men and Wall Street,
cash and collateral turned ashes . . . in the dust, in the
cool tombs.

Pocahontas' body, lovely as a poplar, sweet as a red haw in
November or a pawpaw in May, did she wonder? does she
remember? . . . in the dust, in the cool tombs?

Take any streetful of people buying clothes and groceries,
cheering a hero or throwing confetti and blowing tin
horns . . . tell me if the lovers are losers . . . tell me if any
get more than the lovers . . . in the dust . . . in the cool
tombs.


Scheme xaB xaB cdb xcdxb
Poetic Form
Metre 110101100101101 0100001000100 11 00101111111011 10010011000100 11 01010101010110110 01010101111011 0100010011 11011101010100 100101100100101 111101011011110 111010001001 1
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 666
Words 121
Sentences 28
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 3, 3, 3, 5
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 10
Letters per stanza (avg) 124
Words per stanza (avg) 35
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 27, 2023

36 sec read
206

Carl Sandburg

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

All Carl Sandburg poems | Carl Sandburg Books

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