{
 "id": "william-carlos-williams/romance-moderne",
 "title": "Romance Moderne",
 "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": 8,
 "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": 106,
  "n_stanzas": 10,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 48,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Tracks of rain and light linger in",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "the spongy greens of a nature whose",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "flickering mountain⁠—bulging nearer,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "ebbing back into the sun",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "hollowing itself away to hold a lake⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "or brown stream rising and falling",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "at the roadside, turning about,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "churning itself white, drawing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "green in over it⁠—plunging glassy funnels",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "fall⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And⁠—the other world⁠—",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "the windshield a blunt barrier:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Talk to me. Sh! they would hear us.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "—the backs of their heads facing us⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The stream continues its motion of",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "a hound running over rough ground.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Trees vanish⁠—reappear⁠—vanish:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "detached dance of gnomes⁠—as a talk",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "dodging remarks, glows and fades.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "—The unseen power of words⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And now that a few of the moves",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "are clear the first desire is",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "to fling oneself out at the side into",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "the other dance, to other music.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Peer Gynt. Rip Van Winkle. Diana.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "If I were young I would try a new alignment⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "alight nimbly from the car, Good-bye!⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Childhood companions linked two and two",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "criss-cross: four, three, two, one.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Back into self, tentacles withdrawn.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Feel about in warm self-flesh.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Since childhood, since childhood!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Childhood is a toad in the garden, a",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "happy toad. All toads are happy",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "and belong in gardens. A toad to Diana!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Lean forward. Punch the steersman",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "behind the ear. Twirl the wheel!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Over the edge! Screams! Crash!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The end. I sit above my head⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "a little removed⁠—or",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "a thin wash of rain on the roadway",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "—I am never afraid when he is driving⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "interposes new direction,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "rides us sidewise, unforseen",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "into the ditch! All threads cut!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Death! Black. The end. The very end⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I would sit separate weighing a",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "small red handful: the dirt of these parts,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "sliding mists sheeting the alders",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "against the touch of fingers creeping",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "to mine. All stuff of the blind emotions.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But⁠—stirred, the eye seizes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "for the first time⁠—The eye awake!⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "anything, a dirt bank with green stars",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "of scrawny weed flattened upon it under",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "a weight of air⁠—For the first time!⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "or a yawning depth: Big!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Swim around in it, through it⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "all directions and find",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "vitreous seawater stuff⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "God how I love you!⁠—or, as I say,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "a plunge into the ditch. The end. I sit",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "examining my red handful. Balancing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "—this⁠—in and out⁠—agh.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Love you? It’s",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "a fire in the blood, willy-nilly!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It’s the sun coming up in the morning.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ha, but it’s the grey moon too, already up",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "in the morning. You are slow.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Men are not friends where it concerns",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "a woman? Fighters. Playfellows.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "White round thighs! Youth! Sighs⁠—!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It’s the fillip of novelty. It’s⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Mountains. Elephants humping along",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "against the sky⁠—indifferent to",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "light withdrawing its tattered shreds,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "worn out with embraces. It’s",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "the fillip of novelty. It’s a fire in the blood.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Oh get a flannel shirt, white flannel",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "or pongee. You’d look so well!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I married you because I liked your nose.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I wanted you! I wanted you",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "in spite of all they’d say⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Rain and light, mountain and rain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "rain and river. Will you love me always?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "—A car overturned and two crushed bodies",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "under it.⁠—Always! Always!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the white moon already up.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "White. Clean. All the colors.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A good head, backed by the eye⁠—awake!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "backed by the emotions⁠—blind⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "River and mountain, light and rain⁠—or",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "rain, rock, light, trees⁠—divided:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "rain-light counter rocks-trees or",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "trees counter rain-light-rocks or⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Myriads of counter processions",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "crossing and recrossing, regaining",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "the advantage, buying here, selling there",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "—You are sold cheap everywhere in town!⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "lingering, touching fingers, withdrawing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "gathering forces into blares, hummocks,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "peaks and rivers⁠—river meeting rock",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "—I wish that you were lying there dead",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "and I sitting here beside you.⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It’s the grey moon⁠—over and over.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It’s the clay of these parts.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}