Aaron Hatfield
Better than granite, Spoon River,Is the memory-picture you keep of meStanding before the pioneer men and womenThere at Concord Church on Communion day.Speaking in broken voice of the peasant youthOf Galilee who went to the cityAnd was killed by bankers and lawyers;My voice mingling with the June windThat blew over wheat fields from Atterbury;While the white stones in the burying groundAround the Church shimmered in the summer sun.And there, though my own memoriesWere too great to bear, were you, O pioneers,With bowed heads breathing forth your sorrowFor the sons killed in battle and the daughtersAnd little children who vanished in life’s morning,Or at the intolerable hour of noon.But in those moments of tragic silence,When the wine and bread were passed,Came the reconciliation for us—Us the ploughmen and the hewers of wood,Us the peasants, brothers of the peasant of Galilee—To us came the ComforterAnd the consolation of tongues of flame!
Words in this poem
- pioneer n.
- A soldier detailed or employed to form roads, dig trenches, and make bridges, as an army advances. [F. pionier, orig., a foot soldier, OF. peonier, fr. OF. peon a foot soldier, F. pion. See Pawn in chess.]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- comforter n.
- One who administers comfort or consolation.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Aaron Hatfield 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, Aaron Hatfield, in Spoon River Anthology (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1280, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masters-spoon-river/aaron-hatfield.html, id L07964.
Form and metre
Aaron Hatfield is 24 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 72%). 78% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 11 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 42% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter, other poems in blank verse.
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 -A-------------------A-- river · meA · women · day · youth · city · lawyers · wind · atterbury · ground · sun · memories · pioneers · sorrow · daughters · morning · noon · silence · passed · us · wood · galileeA · comforter · flame
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Better than granite, Spoon River, | 8 | /˘·/˘·/˘ |
| Is the memory-picture you keep of me | 11 | ··/˘˘/˘···· |
| Standing before the pioneer men and women | 12 | /˘····˘/··/˘ |
| There at Concord Church on Communion day. | 10 | ··/···˘/˘· |
| Speaking in broken voice of the peasant youth | 11 | /˘·/˘···/˘· |
| Of Galilee who went to the city | 10 | ·/˘·····/˘ |
| And was killed by bankers and lawyers; | 9 | ····/˘·/˘ |
| My voice mingling with the June wind | 9 | ··/˘˘···· |
| That blew over wheat fields from Atterbury; | 11 | ·······/˘·˘ |
| While the white stones in the burying ground | 10 | ······/˘˘· |
| Around the Church shimmered in the summer sun. | 11 | ····/˘··/˘· |
| And there, though my own memories | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| Were too great to bear, were you, O pioneers, | 11 | ·········˘/ |
| With bowed heads breathing forth your sorrow | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| For the sons killed in battle and the daughters | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| And little children who vanished in life’s morning, | 12 | ·/˘/˘·/˘··/˘ |
| Or at the intolerable hour of noon. | 12 | ···˘/˘˘˘/˘·· |
| But in those moments of tragic silence, | 10 | ···/˘·/˘/˘ |
| When the wine and bread were passed, | 7 | ······· |
| Came the reconciliation for us— | 10 | ···˘·˘/˘·· |
| Us the ploughmen and the hewers of wood, | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| Us the peasants, brothers of the peasant of Galilee— | 14 | ··/˘/˘··/˘·/˘· |
| To us came the Comforter | 7 | ····/˘˘ |
| And the consolation of tongues of flame! | 10 | ···˘/˘···· |
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.