Enoch Dunlap
How many times, during the twenty yearsI was your leader, friends of Spoon River,Did you neglect the convention and caucus,And leave the burden on my handsOf guarding and saving the people’s cause?—Sometimes because you were ill;Or your grandmother was ill;Or you drank too much and fell asleep;Or else you said: “He is our leader,All will be well; he fights for us;We have nothing to do but follow.”But oh, how you cursed me when I fell,And cursed me, saying I had betrayed you,In leaving the caucus room for a moment,When the people’s enemies, there assembled,Waited and watched for a chance to destroyThe Sacred Rights of the People.You common rabble! I left the caucusTo go to the urinal.
Words in this poem
- drank n.
- Wild oats, or darnel grass. See Drake a plant. [Cf. 3d Drake.]
- cursed a.
- Deserving a curse; execrable; hateful; detestable; abominable.
- urinal n.
- A vessel for holding urine; especially, a bottle or tube for holding urine for inspection. [L. urinal, fr. urina urine: cf. F. urinal.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Enoch Dunlap 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, Enoch Dunlap, in Spoon River Anthology (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1280, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masters-spoon-river/enoch-dunlap.html, id L07885.
Form and metre
Enoch Dunlap is 19 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 73%). 71% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.2 syllables. 9 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 21% 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 --A--BB----------A- years · river · caucusA · hands · cause · illB · illB · asleep · leader · us · follow · fell · you · moment · assembled · destroy · people · caucusA · urinal
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 |
|---|---|---|
| How many times, during the twenty years | 10 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘· |
| I was your leader, friends of Spoon River, | 10 | ···/˘···/˘ |
| Did you neglect the convention and caucus, | 11 | ··˘/·˘/˘·/˘ |
| And leave the burden on my hands | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Of guarding and saving the people’s cause?— | 10 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘· |
| Sometimes because you were ill; | 7 | ˘/····· |
| Or your grandmother was ill; | 7 | ··/·˘·· |
| Or you drank too much and fell asleep; | 9 | ·······˘/ |
| Or else you said: “He is our leader, | 10 | ······/˘/˘ |
| All will be well; he fights for us; | 8 | ········ |
| We have nothing to do but follow.” | 9 | ··/˘···/˘ |
| But oh, how you cursed me when I fell, | 9 | ········· |
| And cursed me, saying I had betrayed you, | 10 | ···/˘··˘/· |
| In leaving the caucus room for a moment, | 11 | ·/˘·/˘···/˘ |
| When the people’s enemies, there assembled, | 11 | ··/˘/˘˘·˘/˘ |
| Waited and watched for a chance to destroy | 10 | /˘······˘/ |
| The Sacred Rights of the People. | 8 | ·/˘···/˘ |
| You common rabble! I left the caucus | 10 | ·/˘/˘···/˘ |
| To go to the urinal. | 7 | ····/˘˘ |
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.