Fletcher McGee
She took my strength by minutes,She took my life by hours,She drained me like a fevered moonThat saps the spinning world.The days went by like shadows,The minutes wheeled like stars.She took the pity from my heart,And made it into smiles.She was a hunk of sculptor’s clay,My secret thoughts were fingers:They flew behind her pensive browAnd lined it deep with pain.They set the lips, and sagged the cheeks,And drooped the eye with sorrow.My soul had entered in the clay,Fighting like seven devils.It was not mine, it was not hers;She held it, but its strugglesModeled a face she hated,And a face I feared to see.I beat the windows, shook the bolts.I hid me in a cornerAnd then she died and haunted me,And hunted me for life.
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- hunk n.
- A large lump or piece; a hunch; as, a hunk of bread. [Cf. Hunch.]
- shook v. t.
- To pack, as staves, in a shook.
- haunted a.
- Inhabited by, or subject to the visits of, apparitions; frequented by a ghost.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Fletcher McGee 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, Fletcher McGee, in Spoon River Anthology (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1280, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masters-spoon-river/fletcher-mcgee.html, id L07745.
Form and metre
Fletcher McGee is 24 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 96%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.2 syllables. 8 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 17% 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---B-----B----C--C- minutes · hoursA · moon · world · shadowsA · stars · heart · smiles · clayB · fingers · brow · pain · cheeks · sorrow · clayB · devils · hers · struggles · hated · seeC · bolts · corner · meC · life
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 |
|---|---|---|
| She took my strength by minutes, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| She took my life by hours, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| She drained me like a fevered moon | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| That saps the spinning world. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The days went by like shadows, | 7 | ·····/· |
| The minutes wheeled like stars. | 7 | ·/˘·˘·· |
| She took the pity from my heart, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And made it into smiles. | 6 | ······ |
| She was a hunk of sculptor’s clay, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| My secret thoughts were fingers: | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| They flew behind her pensive brow | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And lined it deep with pain. | 7 | ··˘···· |
| They set the lips, and sagged the cheeks, | 8 | ········ |
| And drooped the eye with sorrow. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| My soul had entered in the clay, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Fighting like seven devils. | 7 | /˘·/˘/˘ |
| It was not mine, it was not hers; | 8 | ········ |
| She held it, but its struggles | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Modeled a face she hated, | 7 | /˘···/˘ |
| And a face I feared to see. | 7 | ······· |
| I beat the windows, shook the bolts. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| I hid me in a corner | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| And then she died and haunted me, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And hunted me for life. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
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.