Analysis of Elliott Hawkins

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



I looked like Abraham Lincoln.
I was one of you, Spoon River, in all fellowship,
But standing for the rights of property and for order.
A regular church attendant,
Sometimes appearing in your town meetings to warn you
Against the evils of discontent and envy,
And to denounce those who tried to destroy the Union,
And to point to the peril of the Knights of Labor.
My success and my example are inevitable influences
In your young men and in generations to come,
In spite of attacks of newspapers like the Clarion;
A regular visitor at Springfield,
When the Legislature was in session,
To prevent raids upon the railroads,
And the men building up the state.
Trusted by them and by you, Spoon River, equally
In spite of the whispers that I was a lobbyist.
Moving quietly through the world, rich and courted.
Dying at last, of course, but lying here
Under a stone with an open book carved upon it
And the words "Of such is the Kingdom of Heaven."
And now, you world-savers, who reaped nothing in life
And in death have neither stones nor epitaphs,
How do you like your silence from mouths stopped
With the dust of my triumphant career?


Scheme ABCDEFACGHAIAJKFLMNOAPQRS
Poetic Form
Metre 1111010 111111100110 11010111000110 01001010 0101001110111 010101001010 0101111101010 0111010101110 10101010101000100 01110001011 0110111010100 010010011 101001010 10110101 00110101 1011011110100 0110101110100 101001011010 1011111101 1001111011011 001111010110 011110111001 0011101110 1111110111 1011101001
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 1,117
Words 207
Sentences 9
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 25
Lines Amount 25
Letters per line (avg) 36
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 900
Words per stanza (avg) 204
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:01 min read
56

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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