Felix Schmidt
It was only a little house of two rooms—Almost like a child’s play-house—With scarce five acres of ground around it;And I had so many children to feedAnd school and clothe, and a wife who was sickFrom bearing children.One day lawyer Whitney came alongAnd proved to me that Christian Dallman,Who owned three thousand acres of land,Had bought the eighty that adjoined meIn eighteen hundred and seventy-oneFor eleven dollars, at a sale for taxes,While my father lay in his mortal illness.So the quarrel arose and I went to law.But when we came to the proof,A survey of the land showed clear as dayThat Dallman’s tax deed covered my groundAnd my little house of two rooms.It served me right for stirring him up.I lost my case and lost my place.I left the court room and went to workAs Christian Dallman’s tenant.
Words in this poem
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
- illness n.
- The condition of being ill, evil, or bad; badness; unfavorableness. [From Ill.]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Felix Schmidt 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, Felix Schmidt, in Spoon River Anthology (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1280, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masters-spoon-river/felix-schmidt.html, id L07888.
Form and metre
Felix Schmidt is 22 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 77%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.1 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 36% 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------B--B------A---- roomsA · house · it · feed · sick · children · along · dallmanB · land · me · oneB · taxes · illness · law · proof · day · ground · roomsA · up · place · work · tenant
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 |
|---|---|---|
| It was only a little house of two rooms— | 11 | ··/˘·/˘···· |
| Almost like a child’s play-house— | 7 | /······ |
| With scarce five acres of ground around it; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And I had so many children to feed | 10 | ····/˘/˘·· |
| And school and clothe, and a wife who was sick | 10 | ·········· |
| From bearing children. | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| One day lawyer Whitney came along | 9 | ··/˘/˘·˘/ |
| And proved to me that Christian Dallman, | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| Who owned three thousand acres of land, | 9 | ···/˘/˘·· |
| Had bought the eighty that adjoined me | 9 | ···/˘·˘/· |
| In eighteen hundred and seventy-one | 10 | ·˘//˘·/˘˘· |
| For eleven dollars, at a sale for taxes, | 12 | ·˘/˘/˘····/˘ |
| While my father lay in his mortal illness. | 11 | ··/˘···/˘/˘ |
| So the quarrel arose and I went to law. | 11 | ··/˘˘/····· |
| But when we came to the proof, | 7 | ······· |
| A survey of the land showed clear as day | 10 | ·˘/······· |
| That Dallman’s tax deed covered my ground | 9 | ·/˘··/˘·· |
| And my little house of two rooms. | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| It served me right for stirring him up. | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| I lost my case and lost my place. | 8 | ········ |
| I left the court room and went to work | 9 | ········· |
| As Christian Dallman’s tenant. | 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.