{
 "id": "william-carlos-williams/tract",
 "title": "Tract",
 "poet": "William Carlos Williams",
 "poet_slug": "william-carlos-williams",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Al Que Quiere! A Book of Poems",
 "book_slug": "al-que-quiere",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 11,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1916,
  "venue": "Others (February 1916)",
  "note": "Collected in Al Que Quiere! (1917).",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/content/tract"
  ]
 },
 "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": 70,
  "n_stanzas": 7,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 44,
  "max_indent": 7
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "I will teach you my townspeople",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "how to perform a funeral⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "for you have it over a troop",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "of artists⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "unless one should scour the world⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "you have the ground sense necessary.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "See! the hearse leads.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I begin with a design for a hearse.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For Christ’s sake not black⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "nor white either⁠—and not polished!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Let it be weathered⁠—like a farm wagon⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "with gilt wheels (this could be",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "applied fresh at small expense)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "or no wheels at all:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "a rough dray to drag over the ground.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Knock the glass out!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My God⁠—glass, my townspeople!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For what purpose? Is it for the dead",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "to look out or for us to see",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "how well he is housed or to see",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "the flowers or the lack of them⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "or what?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To keep the rain and snow from him?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He will have a heavier rain soon:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "pebbles and dirt and what not.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Let there be no glass⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "and no upholstery phew!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "and no little brass rollers",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "and small easy wheels on the bottom⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "my townspeople what are you thinking of?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "A rough plain hearse then",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "with gilt wheels and no top at all.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On this the coffin lies",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "by its own weight.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "No wreathes please⁠—",
    "indent": 7
   },
   {
    "text": "especially no hot house flowers.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Some common memento is better,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "something he prized and is known by:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "his old clothes⁠—a few books perhaps⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "God knows what! You realize",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "how we are about these things",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "my townspeople⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "something will be found⁠—anything",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "even flowers if he had come to that.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So much for the hearse.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For heaven’s sake though see to the driver!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Take off the silk hat! In fact",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "that’s no place at all for him⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "up there unceremoniously",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "dragging our friend out to his own dignity!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bring him down⁠—bring him down!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Low and inconspicuous! I’d not have him ride",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "on the wagon at all⁠—damn him⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "the undertaker’s understrapper!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Let him hold the reins",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "and walk at the side",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "and inconspicuously too!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then briefly as to yourselves:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Walk behind⁠—as they do in France,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "seventh class, or if you ride",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hell take curtains! Go with some show",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "of inconvenience; sit openly⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "to the weather as to grief.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or do you think you can shut grief in?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What⁠—from us? We who have perhaps",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "nothing to lose? Share with us",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "share with us⁠—it will be money",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "in your pockets.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Go now",
    "indent": 6
   },
   {
    "text": "I think you are ready.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}