The Mighty West
Oh, where abides the fond kazoo,The barrel-organ fair,And where is heard the tra-la-looOf fish horns on the air?And where are found the fife and drumDiscoursed with goodliest zest?And where do fiddles liveliest hum?The west--the mighty west!
Sonatas, fugues, and all o' thatAre rightly judged effete,While largos written in B-flatAre clearly out of date;Some like the cold pianny-forty,But whistling suits us best--And op'ry, if it isn't naughty,Will not catch on out west.
From skinning hogs or canning beefOr diving into stocks,Could we expect to find reliefIn Haydns or in Bachs?Ah, no; from pork and wheat and lardWe turn aside with zestTo sing some opus of some bardWhose home is in the west.
So get ye gone, ye weakling crew!Your tunes are stale and flat,And cannot hold a candle toThe works of Silas Pratt!His opuses are in demandAnd are the final testBy which all others fall or standIn this the mighty west!
Words in this poem
- kazoo n.
- A kind of toy or rude musical instrument, as a tube inside of which is a stretched string made to vibrate by singing or humming into the tube.
- zest n.
- A piece of orange or lemon peel, or the aromatic oil which may be squeezed from such peel, used to give flavor to liquor, etc. [F. zeste, probably fr. L. schistos split, cleft, divided, Gr. Schism.]
- rightly adv.
- Straightly; directly; in front. [AS. richtlice.]
- effete a.
- No longer capable of producing young, as an animal, or fruit, as the earth; hence, worn out with age; exhausted of energy; incapable of efficient action; no longer productive; barren; sterile. [L. effetus that has brought forth, exhausted; ex + fetus that has brought forth. See Fetus.]
- naughty a.
- Having little or nothing.
- expect v. t.
- To wait for; to await. [L. expectatum, to look out for, await, expect; ex + out spectare to look at. See Spectacle.]
- opus n.
- A work; specif. (Mus.), a musical composition. [L. See Opera.]
- weakling n.
- A weak or feeble creature. [Weak + -ling.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Mighty West is in the public domain. This text is taken from Hoosier Lyrics, Project Gutenberg ebook #36150; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Eugene Field, The Mighty West, in Hoosier Lyrics (1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #36150, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/field-poems/the-mighty-west.html, id L11631.
Form and metre
The Mighty West is 32 lines in 4 stanzas of 8 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABCDCD, complete in 2 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.1 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 41% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABABCDCD kazooA · fairB · looA · airB · drumC · zestD · humC · westD
- 2 A-A--B-B thatA · effete · flatA · date · forty · bestB · naughty · westB
- 3 A-A-BCBC beefA · stocks · reliefA · bachs · lardB · zestC · bardB · westC
- 4 ABABCDCD crewA · flatB · toA · prattB · demandC · testD · standC · westD
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Oh, where abides the fond kazoo, | 8 | ··˘/··˘/ |
| The barrel-organ fair, | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| And where is heard the tra-la-loo | 8 | ········ |
| Of fish horns on the air? | 6 | ······ |
| And where are found the fife and drum | 8 | ········ |
| Discoursed with goodliest zest? | 6 | /˘···· |
| And where do fiddles liveliest hum? | 9 | ···/˘/·˘· |
| The west--the mighty west! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Sonatas, fugues, and all o' that | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Are rightly judged effete, | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| While largos written in B-flat | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Are clearly out of date; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Some like the cold pianny-forty, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| But whistling suits us best-- | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And op'ry, if it isn't naughty, | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Will not catch on out west. | 6 | ······ |
| From skinning hogs or canning beef | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Or diving into stocks, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Could we expect to find relief | 8 | ··˘/··˘/ |
| In Haydns or in Bachs? | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Ah, no; from pork and wheat and lard | 8 | ········ |
| We turn aside with zest | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| To sing some opus of some bard | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Whose home is in the west. | 6 | ······ |
| So get ye gone, ye weakling crew! | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Your tunes are stale and flat, | 6 | ······ |
| And cannot hold a candle to | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The works of Silas Pratt! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| His opuses are in demand | 8 | ·/˘˘··˘/ |
| And are the final test | 6 | ···/˘· |
| By which all others fall or stand | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| In this the mighty west! | 6 | ···/˘· |
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.