Jim Brown
While I was handling Dom PedroI got at the thing that divides the race between men who areFor singing “Turkey in the straw” or“There is a fountain filled with blood”—(Like Rile Potter used to sing it over at Concord).For cards, or for Rev. Peet’s lecture on the holy land;For skipping the light fantastic, or passing the plate;For Pinafore, or a Sunday school cantata;For men, or for money;For the people or against them.This was it: Rev. Peet and the Social Purity Club,Headed by Ben Pantier’s wife,Went to the Village trustees,And asked them to make me take Dom PedroFrom the barn of Wash McNeely, there at the edge of town,To a barn outside of the corporation,On the ground that it corrupted public morals.Well, Ben Pantier and Fiddler Jones saved the day—They thought it a slam on colts.
Words in this poem
- rile v. t.
- To render turbid or muddy; to stir up; to roil. [See Roil.]
- pinafore n.
- An apron for a child to protect the front part of dress; a tier. [Pin + afore.]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- fiddler n.
- One who plays on a fiddle or violin. [AS. fi.]
- slam v. t.
- To shut with force and a loud noise; to bang; as, he slammed the door. [Of Scand. origin; cf. Icel. slamra, slambra, sl, Norw. slemba, slemma, dial. Sw. slämma.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Jim Brown 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, Jim Brown, in Spoon River Anthology (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1280, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masters-spoon-river/jim-brown.html, id L07836.
Form and metre
Jim Brown is 19 lines in a single stanza. 86% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.4 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 21% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ABB----------ACC--- pedroA · areB · orB · blood · concord · land · plate · cantata · money · them · club · wife · trustees · pedroA · townC · corporationC · morals · day · colts
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 |
|---|---|---|
| While I was handling Dom Pedro | 8 | ···/˘·/˘ |
| I got at the thing that divides the race between men who are | 15 | ······˘/······· |
| For singing “Turkey in the straw” or | 9 | ·/˘/˘···· |
| “There is a fountain filled with blood”— | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| (Like Rile Potter used to sing it over at Concord). | 13 | ··/˘·······/· |
| For cards, or for Rev. Peet’s lecture on the holy land; | 13 | ······/˘··/˘· |
| For skipping the light fantastic, or passing the plate; | 13 | ·/˘··˘/˘·/˘·· |
| For Pinafore, or a Sunday school cantata; | 12 | ·/˘˘··/···/˘ |
| For men, or for money; | 6 | ····/˘ |
| For the people or against them. | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| This was it: Rev. Peet and the Social Purity Club, | 13 | ·······/˘/˘˘· |
| Headed by Ben Pantier’s wife, | 7 | /˘····· |
| Went to the Village trustees, | 7 | ···/˘·/ |
| And asked them to make me take Dom Pedro | 10 | ········/˘ |
| From the barn of Wash McNeely, there at the edge of town, | 14 | ·····˘/˘······ |
| To a barn outside of the corporation, | 11 | ···//···˘/˘ |
| On the ground that it corrupted public morals. | 12 | ·····˘/˘/˘/˘ |
| Well, Ben Pantier and Fiddler Jones saved the day— | 12 | ·····/˘˘···· |
| They thought it a slam on colts. | 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.