Analysis of Jefferson Howard
Edgar Lee Masters 1868 (Garnett) – 1950 (Elkins Park)
My valiant fight! For I call it valiant,
With my father's beliefs from old Virginia:
Hating slavery, but no less war.
I, full of spirit, audacity, courage
Thrown into life here in Spoon River,
With its dominant forces drawn from New England,
Republicans, Calvinists, merchants, bankers,
Hating me, yet fearing my arm.
With wife and children heavy to carry --
Yet fruits of my very zest of life.
Stealing odd pleasures that cost me prestige,
And reaping evils I had not sown;
Foe of the church with its charnel dankness,
Friend of the human touch of the tavern;
Tangled with fates all alien to me,
Deserted by hands I called my own.
Then just as I felt my giant strength
Short of breath, behold my children
Had wound their lives in stranger gardens --
And I stood alone, as I started alone!
My valiant life! I died on my feet,
Facing the silence -- facing the prospect
That no one would know of the fight I made.
Scheme | ABCDEFGHIJKLGMILNOPLQRS |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101111110 11100111010 101001111 11110010010 101110110 111001011110 010011010 10111011 1101010110 111110111 1011011101 010101111 11011111 1101011010 1011110011 010111111 111111101 11101110 111101010 01101111001 110111111 1001010010 1111110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 897 |
Words | 169 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 23 |
Lines Amount | 23 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 709 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 167 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 51 sec read
- 34 Views
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