Jefferson Howard
My valiant fight! For I call it valiant,With my father’s beliefs from old Virginia:Hating slavery, but no less war.I, full of spirit, audacity, courageThrown into life here in Spoon River,With its dominant forces drawn fromNew England, Republicans, Calvinists, merchants, bankers,Hating me, yet fearing my arm.With wife and children heavy to carry—Yet fruits of my very zest of life.Stealing odd pleasures that cost me prestige,And reaping evils I had not sown;Foe of the church with its charnel dankness,Friend of the human touch of the tavern;Tangled with fates all alien to me,Deserted by hands I called my own.Then just as I felt my giant strengthShort of breath, behold my childrenHad wound their lives in stranger gardens—And I stood alone, as I started aloneMy valiant life! I died on my feet,Facing the silence—facing the prospectThat no one would know of the fight I made.
Words in this poem
- valiant a.
- Vigorous in body; strong; powerful; as, a valiant fencer. [OE. valiant, F. vaillant, OF. vaillant, valant, originally p. pr. of OF. & F. valoir to be worth, L. valere to be strong. See Wield, and cf. Avail, Convalesce, ]
- audacity n.
- Daring spirit, resolution, or confidence; venturesomeness.
- zest n.
- A piece of orange or lemon peel, or the aromatic oil which may be squeezed from such peel, used to give flavor to liquor, etc. [F. zeste, probably fr. L. schistos split, cleft, divided, Gr. Schism.]
- prestige n.
- Delusion; illusion; trick. [F., fr. L. praestigum delusion, illusion, praestigae deceptions, jugglers' tricks, prob. fr. prae before + the root of stinguere to extinguish, originally, to p]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Jefferson Howard 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, Jefferson Howard, in Spoon River Anthology (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1280, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masters-spoon-river/jefferson-howard.html, id L07822.
Form and metre
Jefferson Howard is 23 lines in a single stanza. The metre is trochaic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 71%). 80% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.7 syllables. 10 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 26% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic pentameter.
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-A-A-A--- valiant · virginia · war · courage · river · from · bankers · arm · carry · life · prestige · sownA · dankness · tavernA · me · ownA · strength · childrenA · gardens · aloneA · feet · prospect · made
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 trochaic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| My valiant fight! For I call it valiant, | 10 | ·/˘·····/˘ |
| With my father’s beliefs from old Virginia: | 11 | ··/˘˘/··˘/˘ |
| Hating slavery, but no less war. | 9 | /˘/˘˘···· |
| I, full of spirit, audacity, courage | 11 | ···/˘˘/˘˘/˘ |
| Thrown into life here in Spoon River, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| With its dominant forces drawn from | 9 | ··/˘˘/˘·· |
| New England, Republicans, Calvinists, merchants, bankers, | 14 | ·/˘˘/˘˘/˘˘/˘/˘ |
| Hating me, yet fearing my arm. | 8 | /˘··/˘·· |
| With wife and children heavy to carry— | 10 | ···/˘/˘·/˘ |
| Yet fruits of my very zest of life. | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| Stealing odd pleasures that cost me prestige, | 10 | /˘·/˘···˘/ |
| And reaping evils I had not sown; | 9 | ·/˘/˘···· |
| Foe of the church with its charnel dankness, | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| Friend of the human touch of the tavern; | 10 | ···/˘···/˘ |
| Tangled with fates all alien to me, | 10 | /˘···/˘˘·· |
| Deserted by hands I called my own. | 9 | ˘/˘······ |
| Then just as I felt my giant strength | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Short of breath, behold my children | 8 | ···˘/·/˘ |
| Had wound their lives in stranger gardens— | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| And I stood alone, as I started alone | 11 | ···˘/··/˘˘/ |
| My valiant life! I died on my feet, | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| Facing the silence—facing the prospect | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘·/˘ |
| That no one would know of the fight I made. | 10 | ·········· |
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.