Harry Wilmans
I was just turned twenty-one,And Henry Phipps, the Sunday-school superintendent,Made a speech in Bindle’s Opera House.“The honor of the flag must be upheld,” he said,“Whether it be assailed by a barbarous tribe of TagalogsOr the greatest power in Europe.”And we cheered and cheered the speech and the flag he wavedAs he spoke.And I went to the war in spite of my father,And followed the flag till I saw it raisedBy our camp in a rice field near Manila,And all of us cheered and cheered it.But there were flies and poisonous things;And there was the deadly water,And the cruel heat,And the sickening, putrid food;And the smell of the trench just back of the tentsWhere the soldiers went to empty themselves;And there were the whores who followed us, full of syphilis;And beastly acts between ourselves or alone,With bullying, hatred, degradation among us,And days of loathing and nights of fearTo the hour of the charge through the steaming swamp,Following the flag,Till I fell with a scream, shot through the guts.Now there’s a flag over me inSpoon River. A flag!A flag!
Words in this poem
- spoke n.
- The radius or ray of a wheel; one of the small bars which are inserted in the hub, or nave, and which serve to support the rim or felly. [OE. spoke, spake, AS, spaca; akin to D. speek, LG. speke, OHG. speihha, G. speiche. sq. root170. Cf. Spike a nail.]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- sickening a.
- Causing sickness; specif., causing surfeit or disgust; nauseating.
- beastly a.
- Pertaining to, or having the form, nature, or habits of, a beast.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Harry Wilmans 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, Harry Wilmans, in Spoon River Anthology (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1280, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masters-spoon-river/harry-wilmans.html, id L07917.
Form and metre
Harry Wilmans is 28 lines in a single stanza. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter. 86% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.4 syllables. 6 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 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--BB one · superintendent · house · said · tagalogs · europe · waved · spoke · father · raised · manila · it · things · water · heat · food · tents · themselves · syphilisA · alone · usA · fear · swamp · flagB · guts · in · flagB · flagB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I was just turned twenty-one, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| And Henry Phipps, the Sunday-school superintendent, | 13 | ·/˘··/···˘˘/˘ |
| Made a speech in Bindle’s Opera House. | 9 | ····/˘/˘· |
| “The honor of the flag must be upheld,” he said, | 12 | ·/˘·····˘/·· |
| “Whether it be assailed by a barbarous tribe of Tagalogs | 16 | ····˘/··/˘˘··/˘· |
| Or the greatest power in Europe.” | 9 | ··/˘/˘·/˘ |
| And we cheered and cheered the speech and the flag he waved | 12 | ············ |
| As he spoke. | 3 | ··· |
| And I went to the war in spite of my father, | 12 | ··········/˘ |
| And followed the flag till I saw it raised | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| By our camp in a rice field near Manila, | 12 | ·/˘······˘/˘ |
| And all of us cheered and cheered it. | 8 | ········ |
| But there were flies and poisonous things; | 9 | ·····/˘˘· |
| And there was the deadly water, | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| And the cruel heat, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| And the sickening, putrid food; | 8 | ··/˘˘/˘· |
| And the smell of the trench just back of the tents | 11 | ··········· |
| Where the soldiers went to empty themselves; | 10 | ··/˘··/˘˘/ |
| And there were the whores who followed us, full of syphilis; | 14 | ······/˘···/˘˘ |
| And beastly acts between ourselves or alone, | 12 | ·/˘···˘˘/·˘/ |
| With bullying, hatred, degradation among us, | 13 | ·/˘˘/˘·˘/˘··· |
| And days of loathing and nights of fear | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| To the hour of the charge through the steaming swamp, | 12 | ··/˘·····/˘· |
| Following the flag, | 5 | /˘˘·· |
| Till I fell with a scream, shot through the guts. | 10 | ·········· |
| Now there’s a flag over me in | 8 | ········ |
| Spoon River. A flag! | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| A flag! | 2 | ·· |
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.