Elmer Karr
What but the love of God could have softenedAnd made forgiving the people of Spoon RiverToward me who wronged the bed of Thomas MerrittAnd murdered him beside?Oh, loving hearts that took me in againWhen I returned from fourteen years in prison!Oh, helping hands that in the church received meAnd heard with tears my penitent confession,Who took the sacrament of bread and wine!Repent, ye living ones, and rest with Jesus.
Words in this poem
- forgiving a.
- Disposed to forgive; inclined to overlook offenses; mild; merciful; compassionate; placable; as, a forgiving temper.
- sacrament n.
- The oath of allegiance taken by Roman soldiers; hence, a sacred ceremony used to impress an obligation; a solemn oath-taking; an oath. [L. sacramentum an oath, a sacred thing, a mystery, a sacrament, fr. sacrare to declare as sacred, sacer sacred: cf. F. sacrament. See Sacred.]
- repent a.
- Prostrate and rooting; -- said of stems. Gray. [L. repens, -entis, creeping, p. pr. of repere to creep.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Elmer Karr 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, Elmer Karr, in Spoon River Anthology (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1280, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masters-spoon-river/elmer-karr.html, id L07906.
Form and metre
Elmer Karr is 10 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 86% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.5 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 50% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ----AA-AA- softened · river · merritt · beside · againA · prisonA · me · confessionA · wineA · jesus
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| What but the love of God could have softened | 11 | ········/˘˘ |
| And made forgiving the people of Spoon River | 12 | ··˘/˘·/˘··/˘ |
| Toward me who wronged the bed of Thomas Merritt | 12 | ········/˘/˘ |
| And murdered him beside? | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| Oh, loving hearts that took me in again | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| When I returned from fourteen years in prison! | 11 | ··˘/·//··/˘ |
| Oh, helping hands that in the church received me | 11 | ·/˘·····˘/· |
| And heard with tears my penitent confession, | 11 | ·····/˘˘˘/˘ |
| Who took the sacrament of bread and wine! | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| Repent, ye living ones, and rest with Jesus. | 11 | ˘/·/˘····/˘ |
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.