Columbus Cheney
This weeping willow!Why do you not plant a fewFor the millions of children not yet born,As well as for us?Are they not non-existent, or cells asleepWithout mind?Or do they come to earth, their birthRupturing the memory of previous being?Answer!The field of unexplored intuition is yours.But in any case why not plant willows for them,As well as for us?
Words in this poem
- intuition n.
- A looking after; a regard to. [L. intuitus, p. p. of intueri to look on; in- in, on + tueri: cf. F. intuition. See Tuition.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Columbus Cheney 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, Columbus Cheney, in Spoon River Anthology (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1280, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masters-spoon-river/columbus-cheney.html, id L07934.
Form and metre
Columbus Cheney is 12 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. 85% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.8 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% 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 willow · few · born · usA · asleep · mind · birth · being · answer · yours · them · usA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| This weeping willow! | 5 | ·/˘/· |
| Why do you not plant a few | 7 | ······· |
| For the millions of children not yet born, | 10 | ··/˘·/˘··· |
| As well as for us? | 5 | ····· |
| Are they not non-existent, or cells asleep | 11 | ····˘/˘··˘/ |
| Without mind? | 3 | ··· |
| Or do they come to earth, their birth | 8 | ········ |
| Rupturing the memory of previous being? | 13 | /˘˘·/˘˘·/˘˘/˘ |
| Answer! | 2 | /˘ |
| The field of unexplored intuition is yours. | 12 | ····˘/·˘/˘·· |
| But in any case why not plant willows for them, | 12 | ··/˘····/··· |
| As well as for us? | 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.