The Spider and the Ghost of the Fly
Once I loved a spiderWhen I was born a fly,A velvet-footed spiderWith a gown of rainbow-dye.She ate my wings and gloated.She bound me with a hair.She drove me to her parlorAbove her winding stair.To educate young spidersShe took me all apart.My ghost came back to haunt her.I saw her eat my heart.
Words in this poem
- drove n.
- A collection of cattle driven, or cattle collected for driving; a number of animals, as oxen, sheep, or swine, driven in a body. [AS. draf, fr. drifan to drive. See Drive.]
- ghost n.
- The spirit; the soul of man. [OE. gast, gost, soul, spirit, AS. gast breath, spirit, soul; akin to OS. g spirit, soul, D. geest, G. geist, and prob. to E. gaze, ghastly.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Spider and the Ghost of the Fly is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Congo, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #1021; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Vachel Lindsay, The Spider and the Ghost of the Fly, in The Congo and Other Poems (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1021, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lindsay-congo/the-spider-and-the-ghost-of-the-fly.html, id L00969.
Form and metre
The Spider and the Ghost of the Fly is 12 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.5 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 33% 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 ABAB-C-C-D-D spiderA · flyB · spiderA · dyeB · gloated · hairC · parlor · stairC · spiders · apartD · her · heartD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Once I loved a spider | 6 | ····/˘ |
| When I was born a fly, | 6 | ······ |
| A velvet-footed spider | 7 | ·/˘/˘/˘ |
| With a gown of rainbow-dye. | 7 | ····/·· |
| She ate my wings and gloated. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| She bound me with a hair. | 6 | ······ |
| She drove me to her parlor | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Above her winding stair. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| To educate young spiders | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| She took me all apart. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| My ghost came back to haunt her. | 7 | ······· |
| I saw her eat my heart. | 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.