Jacob Goodpasture
When Fort Sumter fell and the war cameI cried out in bitterness of soul:“O glorious republic now no more!”When they buried my soldier sonTo the call of trumpets and the sound of drumsMy heart broke beneath the weightOf eighty years, and I cried:“Oh, son who died in a cause unjust!In the strife of Freedom slain!”And I crept here under the grass.And now from the battlements of time, behold:Thrice thirty million souls being bound togetherIn the love of larger truth,Rapt in the expectation of the birthOf a new Beauty,Sprung from Brotherhood and Wisdom.I with eyes of spirit see the TransfigurationBefore you see it.But ye infinite brood of golden eagles nesting ever higher,Wheeling ever higher, the sun-light wooingOf lofty places of Thought,Forgive the blindness of the departed owl.
Words in this poem
- glorious a.
- Exhibiting attributes, qualities, or acts that are worthy of or receive glory; noble; praiseworthy; excellent; splendid; illustrious; inspiring admiration; as, glorious deeds. [OF. glorios, glorious, F. glorieux, fr. L. gloriosus. See Glory, n.]
- republic n.
- Common weal. B. Jonson. [F. république, L. respublica commonwealth; res a thing, an affair + publicus, publica, public. See Real, a., and Public.]
- trumpets n.
- A plant (Sarracenia flava) with long, hollow leaves.
- broke v. i.
- To transact business for another. Brome. [See Broker, and cf. Brook.]
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
- rapt n.
- An ecstasy; a trance. Bp. Morton. [From F. rapt abduction, rape, L. raptus, fr. rapere to seize and carry off, to transport; or fr. E. rapt, a. See Rapt, a., and Rapid.]
- transfiguration n.
- A change of form or appearance; especially, the supernatural change in the personal appearance of our Savior on the mount. [L. transfiguratio: cf. transfiguration.]
- wheeling n.
- The act of conveying anything, or traveling, on wheels, or in a wheeled vehicle.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Jacob Goodpasture 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, Jacob Goodpasture, in Spoon River Anthology (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1280, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masters-spoon-river/jacob-goodpasture.html, id L07780.
Form and metre
Jacob Goodpasture is 22 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%). 89% 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 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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When Fort Sumter fell and the war came | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| I cried out in bitterness of soul: | 9 | ····/˘˘·· |
| “O glorious republic now no more!” | 10 | ·/˘˘˘/˘··· |
| When they buried my soldier son | 8 | ··/˘·/˘· |
| To the call of trumpets and the sound of drums | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| My heart broke beneath the weight | 7 | ······· |
| Of eighty years, and I cried: | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| “Oh, son who died in a cause unjust! | 9 | ·······˘/ |
| In the strife of Freedom slain!” | 7 | ····/˘· |
| And I crept here under the grass. | 8 | ········ |
| And now from the battlements of time, behold: | 11 | ····/˘˘··˘/ |
| Thrice thirty million souls being bound together | 12 | ·/˘/˘·/˘·˘/˘ |
| In the love of larger truth, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Rapt in the expectation of the birth | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Of a new Beauty, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Sprung from Brotherhood and Wisdom. | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| I with eyes of spirit see the Transfiguration | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| Before you see it. | 5 | ····· |
| But ye infinite brood of golden eagles nesting ever higher, | 17 | ··/˘˘··/˘/˘/˘/˘/˘ |
| Wheeling ever higher, the sun-light wooing | 11 | /˘/˘/˘···/˘ |
| Of lofty places of Thought, | 7 | ·/˘/˘·· |
| Forgive the blindness of the departed owl. | 11 | ˘/·/˘··˘/˘· |
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.