Song Long After

Sherwood Anderson (1876–1941) · 1918

iambic pentameter · 6 lines · from Mid-American Chants

Was that all you could do, Woman—loving and giving?

You went pretty far—I admire you for that. Do you remember the night in the upper room when he cried? He needed you then—God knows he needed you then.Down below the others were waiting—Judas and Peter and John—old men—mighty wise. He was crucified for them. At night when the stars came he went out alone—long after that.

How did you know what you did know, Woman? That puzzles me.How could you go that far and stop?

Was that all you could do, Woman—loving and giving?

Words in this poem

went n.
Course; way; path; journey; direction.
admire v. t.
To regard with wonder or astonishment; to view with surprise; to marvel at. [F. admirer, fr. L. admirari; ad + mirari to wonder, for smirari, akin to Gr. smi, and E. smile.]

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

Song Long After is in the public domain. This text is taken from Mid-American Chants (New York: John Lane Company; London: John Lane, The Bodley Head, 1918), Internet Archive; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.

Cite as: Sherwood Anderson, Song Long After, in Mid-American Chants (1918), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/anderson-mid-american-chants/song-long-after.html, id L29486.

About this section

Song Long After is prose, printed in 4 paragraphs. It is part of the edition and is kept for reading, but nothing here is measured: the line breaks are the printer's, so no metre, rhyme scheme or scansion is stated.

The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.

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