Barry Holden
The very fall my sister Nancy KnappSet fire to the houseThey were trying Dr. DuvalFor the murder of Zora Clemens,And I sat in the court two weeksListening to every witness.It was clear he had got her in a family way;And to let the child be bornWould not do.Well, how about me with eight children,And one coming, and the farmMortgaged to Thomas Rhodes?And when I got home that night,(After listening to the story of the buggy ride,And the finding of Zora in the ditch,)The first thing I saw, right there by the steps,Where the boys had hacked for angle worms,Was the hatchet!And just as I entered there was my wife,Standing before me, big with child.She started the talk of the mortgaged farm,And I killed her.
Words in this poem
- knapp v. t.
- To bite; to bite off; to break short. [D. knappen to chew, bite, crack, take hold of; prob. of imitative origin.]
- buggy a.
- Infested or abounding with bugs. [From Bug.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Barry Holden 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, Barry Holden, in Spoon River Anthology (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1280, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masters-spoon-river/barry-holden.html, id L07810.
Form and metre
Barry Holden is 22 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. 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.2 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 27% 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 -A---A----B---------B- knapp · houseA · duval · clemens · weeks · witnessA · way · born · do · children · farmB · rhodes · night · ride · ditch · steps · worms · hatchet · wife · child · farmB · her
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The very fall my sister Nancy Knapp | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Set fire to the house | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| They were trying Dr. Duval | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| For the murder of Zora Clemens, | 9 | ··/˘·/˘/˘ |
| And I sat in the court two weeks | 8 | ········ |
| Listening to every witness. | 9 | /˘˘·/˘˘/˘ |
| It was clear he had got her in a family way; | 13 | ·········/˘˘· |
| And to let the child be born | 7 | ······· |
| Would not do. | 3 | ··· |
| Well, how about me with eight children, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| And one coming, and the farm | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Mortgaged to Thomas Rhodes? | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| And when I got home that night, | 7 | ······· |
| (After listening to the story of the buggy ride, | 14 | ··/˘˘··/˘··/˘· |
| And the finding of Zora in the ditch,) | 10 | ··/˘·/˘··· |
| The first thing I saw, right there by the steps, | 10 | ·········· |
| Where the boys had hacked for angle worms, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Was the hatchet! | 4 | ··/˘ |
| And just as I entered there was my wife, | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| Standing before me, big with child. | 8 | /˘······ |
| She started the talk of the mortgaged farm, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| And I killed her. | 4 | ···· |
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.