James Garber
Do you remember, passer-by, the pathI wore across the lot where now stands the opera houseHasting with swift feet to work through many years?Take its meaning to heart:You too may walk, after the hills at Miller’s FordSeem no longer far away;Long after you see them near at hand,Beyond four miles of meadow;And after woman’s love is silentSaying no more: “I will save you.”And after the faces of friends and kindredBecome as faded photographs, pitifully silent,Sad for the look which means:“We cannot help you.”And after you no longer reproach mankindWith being in league against your soul’s uplifted hands—Themselves compelled at midnight and at noonTo watch with steadfast eye their destinies;After you have these understandings, think of meAnd of my path, who walked therein and knewThat neither man nor woman, neither toil,Nor duty, gold nor powerCan ease the longing of the soul,The loneliness of the soul!
Words in this poem
- loneliness n.
- The condition of being lonely; solitude; seclusion.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
James Garber 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, James Garber, in Spoon River Anthology (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1280, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masters-spoon-river/james-garber.html, id L07954.
Form and metre
James Garber is 24 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. 88% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.4 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 42% 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 --------AB-A-B-----B--CC path · house · years · heart · ford · away · hand · meadow · silentA · youB · kindred · silentA · means · youB · mankind · hands · noon · destinies · me · knewB · toil · power · soulC · soulC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Do you remember, passer-by, the path | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| I wore across the lot where now stands the opera house | 13 | ··˘/······/˘· |
| Hasting with swift feet to work through many years? | 11 | /˘······/˘· |
| Take its meaning to heart: | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| You too may walk, after the hills at Miller’s Ford | 12 | ·········/˘· |
| Seem no longer far away; | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| Long after you see them near at hand, | 9 | ········· |
| Beyond four miles of meadow; | 7 | ·····/· |
| And after woman’s love is silent | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| Saying no more: “I will save you.” | 8 | /˘······ |
| And after the faces of friends and kindred | 11 | ····/˘···/˘ |
| Become as faded photographs, pitifully silent, | 14 | ˘/·/˘/˘·/˘˘˘/˘ |
| Sad for the look which means: | 6 | ······ |
| “We cannot help you.” | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| And after you no longer reproach mankind | 11 | ·····/˘˘/// |
| With being in league against your soul’s uplifted hands— | 13 | ·/˘······/˘˘· |
| Themselves compelled at midnight and at noon | 10 | ˘/˘/·/···· |
| To watch with steadfast eye their destinies; | 10 | ···/···/˘˘ |
| After you have these understandings, think of me | 12 | ·····˘˘/˘··· |
| And of my path, who walked therein and knew | 10 | ·········· |
| That neither man nor woman, neither toil, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Nor duty, gold nor power | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| Can ease the longing of the soul, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The loneliness of the soul! | 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.