Analysis of Arlo Will

Edgar Lee Masters 1868 (Garnett) – 1950 (Elkins Park)



Did you ever see an alligator
Come up to the air from the mud,
Staring blindly under the full glare of noon?
Have you seen the stabled horses at night
Tremble and start back at the sight of a lantern?
Have you ever walked in darkness
When an unknown door was open before you
And you stood, it seemed, in the light of a thousand candles
Of delicate wax?
Have you walked with the wind in your ears
And the sunlight about you
And found it suddenly shine with an inner splendor?
Out of the mud many times,
Before many doors of light,
Through many fields of splendor,
Where around your steps a soundless glory scatters
Like new-fallen snow,
Will you go through earth, O strong of soul,
And through unnumbered heavens
To the final flame!


Scheme ABCDEFGHIJGAKDAFLMNO
Poetic Form Etheree  (20%)
Metre 111011100 11101101 10101001111 111011011 100111011010 11101010 11011110011 01111001101010 11001 111101011 001011 0111001111010 1101101 0110111 1101110 1011101101 11101 111111111 01110 10101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 720
Words 138
Sentences 6
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 20
Lines Amount 20
Letters per line (avg) 29
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 581
Words per stanza (avg) 136
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

41 sec read
54

Edgar Lee Masters

Edgar Lee Masters was an American poet, biographer, and dramatist. more…

All Edgar Lee Masters poems | Edgar Lee Masters Books

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