Albert Schirding
Jonas Keene thought his lot a hard oneBecause his children were all failures.But I know of a fate more trying than that:It is to be a failure while your children are successes.For I raised a brood of eaglesWho flew away at last, leaving meA crow on the abandoned bough.Then, with the ambition to prefixHonorable to my name,And thus to win my children’s admiration,I ran for County Superintendent of Schools,Spending my accumulations to win—and lost.That fall my daughter received first prize in ParisFor her picture, entitled, “The Old Mill”—(It was of the water mill before Henry Wilkin put in steam.)The feeling that I was not worthy of her finished me.
Words in this poem
- admiration n.
- Wonder; astonishment. [F., fr. L. admiratio. See Admire.]
- county n.
- An earldom; the domain of a count or earl. [F. comt, fr. LL. comitatus. See Count.]
- spending n.
- The act of expending; expenditure. Spending money, money set apart for extra (not necessary) personal expenses; pocket money.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Albert Schirding 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, Albert Schirding, in Spoon River Anthology (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1280, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masters-spoon-river/albert-schirding.html, id L07824.
Form and metre
Albert Schirding is 16 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. 83% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.8 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 31% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 one · failures · that · successes · eagles · meA · bough · prefix · name · admiration · schools · lost · paris · mill · steam · meA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Jonas Keene thought his lot a hard one | 9 | /˘······· |
| Because his children were all failures. | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| But I know of a fate more trying than that: | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| It is to be a failure while your children are successes. | 15 | ·····/˘··/˘·˘/˘ |
| For I raised a brood of eagles | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Who flew away at last, leaving me | 9 | ··˘/··/˘· |
| A crow on the abandoned bough. | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Then, with the ambition to prefix | 9 | ···˘/˘·/˘ |
| Honorable to my name, | 7 | /˘˘˘··· |
| And thus to win my children’s admiration, | 11 | ·····/˘·˘/˘ |
| I ran for County Superintendent of Schools, | 12 | ···/˘·˘˘/˘·· |
| Spending my accumulations to win—and lost. | 12 | /˘·˘·˘/˘···· |
| That fall my daughter received first prize in Paris | 12 | ···/˘˘/···/˘ |
| For her picture, entitled, “The Old Mill”— | 10 | ··/˘˘/˘··· |
| (It was of the water mill before Henry Wilkin put in steam.) | 16 | ····/˘···/˘/˘··· |
| The feeling that I was not worthy of her finished me. | 14 | ·/˘····/˘··/˘· |
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.