Arlo Will
Did you ever see an alligatorCome up to the air from the mud,Staring blindly under the full glare of noon?Have you seen the stabled horses at nightTremble and start back at the sight of a lantern?Have you ever walked in darknessWhen an unknown door was open before youAnd you stood, it seemed, in the light of a thousand candlesOf delicate wax?Have you walked with the wind in your earsAnd the sunlight about youAnd found it suddenly shine with an inner splendor?Out of the mud many timesBefore many doors of lightThrough many fields of splendor,Where around your steps a soundless glory scattersLike new-fallen snow,Will you go through earth, O strong of soul,And through unnumbered heavensTo the final flame!
Words in this poem
- blindly adv.
- Without sight, discernment, or understanding; without thought, investigation, knowledge, or purpose of one's own.
- glare v. i.
- To shine with a bright, dazzling light. [OE. glaren, gloren; cf. AS. glær amber, LG. glaren to glow or burn like coals, D. gloren to glimmer; prob. akin to E. glass.]
- soundless a.
- Not capable of being sounded or fathomed; unfathomable.
- unnumbered a.
- Not numbered; not counted or estimated; innumerable.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Arlo Will 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, Arlo Will, in Spoon River Anthology (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1280, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masters-spoon-river/arlo-will.html, id L07958.
Form and metre
Arlo Will is 20 lines in a single stanza. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter. 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.8 syllables. 8 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 55% 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 --ABA-C---CD-BD----- alligator · mud · noonA · nightB · lanternA · darkness · youC · candles · wax · ears · youC · splendorD · times · lightB · splendorD · scatters · snow · soul · heavens · 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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Did you ever see an alligator | 10 | ··/˘··/˘·˘ |
| Come up to the air from the mud, | 8 | ········ |
| Staring blindly under the full glare of noon? | 11 | /˘/˘······· |
| Have you seen the stabled horses at night | 10 | ····/˘/˘·· |
| Tremble and start back at the sight of a lantern? | 12 | /˘········/˘ |
| Have you ever walked in darkness | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| When an unknown door was open before you | 11 | ··˘/··/˘··· |
| And you stood, it seemed, in the light of a thousand candles | 14 | ··········/˘/˘ |
| Of delicate wax? | 5 | ·/˘˘· |
| Have you walked with the wind in your ears | 9 | ········· |
| And the sunlight about you | 7 | ··/···· |
| And found it suddenly shine with an inner splendor? | 13 | ···/˘˘···/˘/˘ |
| Out of the mud many times | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Before many doors of light | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Through many fields of splendor, | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| Where around your steps a soundless glory scatters | 12 | ······/˘/˘/˘ |
| Like new-fallen snow, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Will you go through earth, O strong of soul, | 9 | ········· |
| And through unnumbered heavens | 7 | ··˘/˘/˘ |
| To the final flame! | 5 | ··/˘· |
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.