Eugenia Todd
Have any of you, passers-by,Had an old tooth that was an unceasing discomfort?Or a pain in the side that never quite left you?Or a malignant growth that grew with time?So that even in profoundest slumberThere was shadowy consciousness or the phantom of thoughtOf the tooth, the side, the growth?Even so thwarted love, or defeated ambition,Or a blunder in life which mixed your lifeHopelessly to the end,Will like a tooth, or a pain in the side,Float through your dreams in the final sleepTill perfect freedom from the earth-sphereComes to you as one who wakesHealed and glad in the morning!
About this text
Eugenia Todd 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, Eugenia Todd, in Spoon River Anthology (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1280, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masters-spoon-river/eugenia-todd.html, id L07826.
Form and metre
Eugenia Todd is 15 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. 85% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.7 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 40% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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--------- by · discomfortA · you · time · slumber · thoughtA · growth · ambition · life · end · side · sleep · sphere · wakes · morning
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Have any of you, passers-by, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Had an old tooth that was an unceasing discomfort? | 13 | ·······˘/˘˘/˘ |
| Or a pain in the side that never quite left you? | 12 | ·······/˘··· |
| Or a malignant growth that grew with time? | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| So that even in profoundest slumber | 10 | ··/˘·˘/˘/˘ |
| There was shadowy consciousness or the phantom of thought | 14 | ··/˘˘/˘˘··/˘·· |
| Of the tooth, the side, the growth? | 7 | ······· |
| Even so thwarted love, or defeated ambition, | 13 | /˘·/˘··˘/˘˘/˘ |
| Or a blunder in life which mixed your life | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| Hopelessly to the end, | 6 | /˘˘··· |
| Will like a tooth, or a pain in the side, | 10 | ·········· |
| Float through your dreams in the final sleep | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Till perfect freedom from the earth-sphere | 9 | ·˘//˘···· |
| Comes to you as one who wakes | 7 | ······· |
| Healed and glad in the morning! | 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.