Hamlet Micure
In a lingering fever many visions come to you:I was in the little house againWith its great yard of cloverRunning down to the board-fence,Shadowed by the oak tree,Where we children had our swing.Yet the little house was a manor hallSet in a lawn, and by the lawn was the sea.I was in the room where little PaulStrangled from diphtheria,But yet it was not this room—It was a sunny verandah enclosedWith mullioned windowsAnd in a chair sat a man in a dark cloakWith a face like Euripides.He had come to visit me, or I had gone to visit him—I could not tell.We could hear the beat of the sea, the clover noddedUnder a summer wind, and little Paul cameWith clover blossoms to the window and smiled.Then I said: “What is ‘divine despair,’ Alfred?”“Have you read ‘Tears, Idle Tears’?” he asked.“Yes, but you do not there express divine despair.”“My poor friend,” he answered, “that was why the despairWas divine.”
Words in this poem
- diphtheria n.
- A very dangerous contagious disease in which the air passages, and especially the throat, become coated with a false membrane, produced by the solidification of an inflammatory exudation. Cf. [NL., fr. Gr. membrane): cf. depsere to knead.]
- sunny a.
- Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from, or resembling the sun; hence, shining; bright; brilliant; radiant.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Hamlet Micure 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, Hamlet Micure, in Spoon River Anthology (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1280, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masters-spoon-river/hamlet-micure.html, id L07924.
Form and metre
Hamlet Micure is 24 lines in a single stanza. 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.5 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 42% 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-BAB------------CC- you · again · clover · fence · treeA · swing · hallB · seaA · paulB · diphtheria · room · enclosed · windows · cloak · euripides · tell · nodded · came · smiled · alfred · asked · despairC · despairC · divine
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 |
|---|---|---|
| In a lingering fever many visions come to you: | 14 | ··/˘˘/˘/˘/˘··· |
| I was in the little house again | 9 | ····/˘·˘/ |
| With its great yard of clover | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Running down to the board-fence, | 7 | /˘····· |
| Shadowed by the oak tree, | 6 | /˘···· |
| Where we children had our swing. | 8 | ··/˘·/˘· |
| Yet the little house was a manor hall | 10 | ··/˘···/˘· |
| Set in a lawn, and by the lawn was the sea. | 11 | ··········· |
| I was in the room where little Paul | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Strangled from diphtheria, | 7 | /˘·˘/˘˘ |
| But yet it was not this room— | 7 | ······· |
| It was a sunny verandah enclosed | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| With mullioned windows | 5 | ···/˘ |
| And in a chair sat a man in a dark cloak | 11 | ··········· |
| With a face like Euripides. | 7 | ······· |
| He had come to visit me, or I had gone to visit him—I could not tell. | 19 | ····/˘······/˘····· |
| We could hear the beat of the sea, the clover nodded | 13 | ·········/˘/˘ |
| Under a summer wind, and little Paul came | 11 | ···/˘··/˘·· |
| With clover blossoms to the window and smiled. | 11 | ·/˘/˘··/˘·· |
| Then I said: “What is ‘divine despair,’ Alfred?” | 11 | ·····˘/˘//˘ |
| “Have you read ‘Tears, Idle Tears’?” he asked. | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| “Yes, but you do not there express divine despair.” | 12 | ······˘/˘/˘/ |
| “My poor friend,” he answered, “that was why the despair | 12 | ····/˘····˘/ |
| Was divine.” | 3 | ·˘/ |
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.