A. D. Blood
If you in the village think that my work was a good one,Who closed the saloons and stopped all playing at cards,And haled old Daisy Fraser before Justice Arnett,In many a crusade to purge the people of sin;Why do you let the milliner’s daughter Dora,And the worthless son of Benjamin PantierNightly make my grave their unholy pillow?
Words in this poem
- milliner n.
- Formerly, a man who imported and dealt in small articles of a miscellaneous kind, especially such as please the fancy of women. [From Milaner an inhabitant of Milan, in Italy; hence, a man from Milan who imported women's finery.]
- benjamin n.
- A kind of upper coat for men.
- nightly a.
- Of or pertaining to the night, or to every night; happening or done by night, or every night; as, nightly shades; he kept nightly vigils.
- unholy a.
- Not holy; unhallowed; not consecrated; hence, profane; wicked; impious.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A. D. Blood is in the public domain. This text is taken from Spoon River Anthology, Project Gutenberg ebook #1280; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edgar Lee Masters, A. D. Blood, in Spoon River Anthology (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1280, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masters-spoon-river/a-d-blood.html, id L07802.
Form and metre
A. D. Blood is 7 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The lines average 12.3 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
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.
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| If you in the village think that my work was a good one, | 14 | ····/˘········ |
| Who closed the saloons and stopped all playing at cards, | 12 | ···˘/···/˘·· |
| And haled old Daisy Fraser before Justice Arnett, | 13 | ···/˘/˘··/˘˘/ |
| In many a crusade to purge the people of sin; | 13 | ·/˘·˘/···/˘·· |
| Why do you let the milliner’s daughter Dora, | 12 | ·····/˘˘/˘/˘ |
| And the worthless son of Benjamin Pantier | 11 | ··/˘··/˘˘·· |
| Nightly make my grave their unholy pillow? | 11 | /˘····˘/˘/˘ |
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.