Anne Rutledge
Out of me unworthy and unknownThe vibrations of deathless music;“With malice toward none, with charity for all.”Out of me the forgiveness of millions toward millions,And the beneficent face of a nationShining with justice and truth.I am Anne Rutledge who sleep beneath these weeds,Beloved in life of Abraham Lincoln,Wedded to him, not through union, But through separation.Bloom forever, O Republic,From the dust of my bosom!
Words in this poem
- deathless a.
- Not subject to death, destruction, or extinction; immortal; undying; imperishable; as, deathless beings; deathless fame.
- wedded a.
- Joined in wedlock; married.
- republic n.
- Common weal. B. Jonson. [F. république, L. respublica commonwealth; res a thing, an affair + publicus, publica, public. See Real, a., and Public.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Anne Rutledge 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, Anne Rutledge, in Spoon River Anthology (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1280, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masters-spoon-river/anne-rutledge.html, id L07923.
Form and metre
Anne Rutledge is 11 lines in a single stanza. 79% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 7 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 18% 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---A-- unknownA · music · all · millions · nationA · truth · weeds · lincoln · separationA · republic · bosom
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Out of me unworthy and unknown | 9 | ···˘/˘·˘/ |
| The vibrations of deathless music; | 9 | ·˘/˘·/˘/˘ |
| “With malice toward none, with charity for all.” | 12 | ·/˘····/˘˘·· |
| Out of me the forgiveness of millions toward millions, | 14 | ····˘/˘·/˘··/˘ |
| And the beneficent face of a nation | 11 | ···˘/˘···/˘ |
| Shining with justice and truth. | 7 | /˘·/˘·· |
| I am Anne Rutledge who sleep beneath these weeds, | 11 | ···/˘······ |
| Beloved in life of Abraham Lincoln, | 10 | ˘/···/˘·/˘ |
| Wedded to him, not through union, But through separation. | 14 | /˘····/˘···˘/˘ |
| Bloom forever, O Republic, | 8 | ·˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| From the dust of my bosom! | 7 | ·····/˘ |
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.