{
 "id": "william-carlos-williams/overture-to-a-dance-of-locomotives",
 "title": "Overture to a Dance of Locomotives",
 "poet": "William Carlos Williams",
 "poet_slug": "william-carlos-williams",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Sour Grapes: A Book of Poems",
 "book_slug": "sour-grapes",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 7,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1921,
  "venue": "Sour Grapes: A Book of Poems (1921)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/35667"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/william-carlos-williams_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31878",
   "https://archive.org/details/temperscarlos00willrich",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/51997",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/006060238",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/35667",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007676947"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-12"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 44,
  "n_stanzas": 8,
  "n_parts": 2,
  "longest_line_chars": 44,
  "max_indent": 7
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [
  {
   "ordinal": "I",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    0,
    3
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "II",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    3,
    8
   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Men with picked voices chant the names",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "of cities in a huge gallery: promises",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "that pull through descending stairways",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "to a deep rumbling.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The rubbing feet",
    "indent": 7
   },
   {
    "text": "of those coming to be carried quicken a",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "grey pavement into soft light that rocks",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "to and fro, under the domed ceiling,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "across and across from pale",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "earthcolored walls of bare limestone.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Covertly the hands of a great clock",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "go round and round! Were they to",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "move quickly and at once the whole",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "secret would be out and the shuffling",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "of all ants be done forever.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "A leaning pyramid of sunlight, narrowing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "out at a high window, moves by the clock:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "disaccordant hands straining out from",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "a center: inevitable postures infinitely",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "repeated⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Two⁠—twofour⁠—twoeight!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Porters in red hats run on narrow platforms.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This way ma’m!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "—important not to take",
    "indent": 6
   },
   {
    "text": "the wrong train!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lights from the concrete",
    "indent": 6
   },
   {
    "text": "ceiling hang crooked but⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Poised horizontal",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "on glittering parallels the dingy cylinders",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "packed with a warm glow⁠—inviting entry⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "pull against the hour. But brakes can",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "hold a fixed posture till⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The whistle!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Not twoeight. Not twofour. Two!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Gliding windows. Colored cooks sweating",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "in a small kitchen. Taillights⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "In time: twofour!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In time: twoeight!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "—rivers are tunneled: trestles",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "cross oozy swampland: wheels repeating",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "the same gesture remain relatively",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "stationary: rails forever parallel",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "return on themselves infinitely.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The dance is sure.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}