Analysis of Theodore the Poet
Edgar Lee Masters 1868 (Garnett) – 1950 (Elkins Park)
As a boy, Theodore, you sat for long hours
On the shore of the turbid Spoon
With deep-set eye staring at the door of the crawfish's burrow,
Waiting for him to appear, pushing ahead,
First his waving antennae, like straws of hay,
And soon his body, colored like soap-stone,
Gemmed with eyes of jet.
And you wondered in a trance of thought
What he knew, what he desired, and why he lived at all.
But later your vision watched for men and women
Hiding in burrows of fate amid great cities,
Looking for the souls of them to come out,
So that you could see
How they lived, and for what,
And why they kept crawling so busily
Along the sandy way where water fails
As the summer wanes.
Scheme | ABCDEFGHIJKLMNMOP |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 10110111110 1011011 11111010110110 10111011001 11100101111 0111010111 11111 011000111 11111010011111 110110111010 100101101110 1010111111 11111 111011 0111101100 0101011101 10101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 669 |
Words | 131 |
Sentences | 4 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 17 |
Lines Amount | 17 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 528 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 129 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 39 sec read
- 118 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Theodore the Poet" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/8728/theodore-the-poet>.
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