Conrad Siever
Not in that wasted gardenWhere bodies are drawn into grassThat feeds no flocks, and into evergreensThat bear no fruit—There where along the shaded walksVain sighs are heard,And vainer dreams are dreamedOf close communion with departed souls—But here under the apple treeI loved and watched and prunedWith gnarled handsIn the long, long years;Here under the roots of this northern-spyTo move in the chemic change and circle of life,Into the soil and into the flesh of the tree,And into the living epitaphsOf redder apples!
Words in this poem
- gnarled a.
- Knotty; full of knots or gnarls; twisted; crossgrained.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Conrad Siever 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, Conrad Siever, in Spoon River Anthology (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1280, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masters-spoon-river/conrad-siever.html, id L07767.
Form and metre
Conrad Siever is 17 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. 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.5 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 59% 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-A-- garden · grass · evergreens · fruit · walks · heard · dreamed · souls · treeA · pruned · hands · years · spyA · life · treeA · epitaphs · apples
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Not in that wasted garden | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Where bodies are drawn into grass | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| That feeds no flocks, and into evergreens | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| That bear no fruit— | 4 | ···· |
| There where along the shaded walks | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| Vain sighs are heard, | 4 | ···· |
| And vainer dreams are dreamed | 6 | ······ |
| Of close communion with departed souls— | 10 | ··˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| But here under the apple tree | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| I loved and watched and pruned | 6 | ······ |
| With gnarled hands | 3 | ··· |
| In the long, long years; | 5 | ····· |
| Here under the roots of this northern-spy | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| To move in the chemic change and circle of life, | 12 | ····/˘··/˘·· |
| Into the soil and into the flesh of the tree, | 12 | ············ |
| And into the living epitaphs | 9 | ····/˘/˘· |
| Of redder apples! | 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.