Andy the Night-Watch
In my Spanish cloak,And old slouch hat,And overshoes of felt,And Tyke, my faithful dog,And my knotted hickory cane,I slipped about with a bull’s-eye lanternFrom door to door on the square,As the midnight stars wheeled round,And the bell in the steeple murmuredFrom the blowing of the wind;And the weary steps of old Doc HillSounded like one who walks in sleep,And a far-off rooster crew.And now another is watching Spoon RiverAs others watched before me.And here we lie, Doc Hill and IWhere none breaks through and steals,And no eye needs to guard.
Words in this poem
- slouch n.
- A hanging down of the head; a drooping attitude; a limp appearance; an ungainly, clownish gait; a sidewise depression or hanging down, as of a hat brim. [Cf. Icel. sla slouching felloew, and E. slack, slug, a lazy fellow.]
- rooster n.
- The male of the domestic fowl; a cock. [U.S.]
- needs adv.
- Of necessity; necessarily; indispensably; -- often with must, and equivalent to of need. [Orig. gen. of need, used as an adverb. Cf. - wards.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Andy the Night-Watch 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, Andy the Night-Watch, in Spoon River Anthology (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1280, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masters-spoon-river/andy-the-night-watch.html, id L07769.
Form and metre
Andy the Night-Watch is 18 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.2 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 28% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 ----AA--------BB-- cloak · hat · felt · dog · caneA · lanternA · square · round · murmured · wind · hill · sleep · crew · river · meB · iB · steals · guard
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| In my Spanish cloak, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| And old slouch hat, | 4 | ···· |
| And overshoes of felt, | 5 | ····· |
| And Tyke, my faithful dog, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And my knotted hickory cane, | 8 | ··/˘/˘˘· |
| I slipped about with a bull’s-eye lantern | 10 | ········/˘ |
| From door to door on the square, | 7 | ······· |
| As the midnight stars wheeled round, | 7 | ··/···· |
| And the bell in the steeple murmured | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| From the blowing of the wind; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| And the weary steps of old Doc Hill | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| Sounded like one who walks in sleep, | 8 | /˘······ |
| And a far-off rooster crew. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| And now another is watching Spoon River | 11 | ··˘/˘·/˘·/˘ |
| As others watched before me. | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| And here we lie, Doc Hill and I | 8 | ········ |
| Where none breaks through and steals, | 6 | ······ |
| And no eye needs to guard. | 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.