Analysis of Rebecca Wasson
Edgar Lee Masters 1868 (Garnett) – 1950 (Elkins Park)
Spring and Summer, Fall and Winter and Spring,
After each other drifting, past my window drifting!
And I lay so many years watching them drift and counting
The years till a terror came in my heart at times,
With the feeling that I had become eternal; at last
My hundredth year was reached! And still I lay
Hearing the tick of the clock, and the low of cattle
And the scream of a jay flying through falling leaves!
Day after day alone in a room of the house
Of a daughter-in-law stricken with age and gray.
And by night, or looking out of the window by day
My thought ran back, it seemed, through infinite time
To North Carolina and all my girlhood days,
And John, my John, away to the war with the British,
And all the children, the deaths, and all the sorrows.
And that stretch of years like a prairie in Illinois
Through which great figures passed like hurrying horsemen,
Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, Webster, Clay.
O beautiful young republic for whom my John and I
Gave all of our strength and love!
And O my John!
Why, when I lay so helpless in bed for years,
Praying for you to come, was your coming delayed?
Seeing that with a cry of rapture, like that I uttered
When you found me in old Virginia after the war,
I cried when I beheld you there by the bed,
As the sun stood low in the west growing smaller and fainter
In the light of your face!
Scheme | AAABCDEFGDDHIJKLMDNOPQRSTUVW |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1010101001 1011010111010 01111011011010 011010101111 10101110101011 1101110111 1001101001110 001101101101 110101001101 101001101101 0111101101011 11111111001 1101001111 0111011011010 010100101010 011111010001 111101110010 10010010101 11001010111101 11110101 0111 11111100111 101111111001 10110111011110 1111010101001 1111111101 101110011010010 001111 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,333 |
Words | 259 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 28 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 38 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,058 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 257 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:17 min read
- 44 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Rebecca Wasson" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/8692/rebecca-wasson>.
Discuss this Edgar Lee Masters poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In