John Wasson
Oh! the dew-wet grass of the meadow in North CarolinaThrough which Rebecca followed me wailing, wailing,One child in her arms, and three that ran along wailing,Lengthening out the farewell to me off to the war with the British,And then the long, hard years down to the day of Yorktown.And then my search for Rebecca,Finding her at last in Virginia,Two children dead in the meanwhile.We went by oxen to Tennessee,Thence after years to Illinois,At last to Spoon River.We cut the buffalo grass,We felled the forests,We built the school houses, built the bridges,Leveled the roads and tilled the fieldsAlone with poverty, scourges, death—If Harry Wilmans who fought the FilipinosIs to have a flag on his graveTake it from mine.
Words in this poem
- meanwhile n.
- The intervening time; as, in the meantime (or mean time).
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- illinois n.
- A tribe of North American Indians, which formerly occupied the region between the Wabash and Mississippi rivers.
- harry v. i.
- To make a predatory incursion; to plunder or lay waste.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
John Wasson 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, John Wasson, in Spoon River Anthology (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1280, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masters-spoon-river/john-wasson.html, id L07918.
Form and metre
John Wasson is 19 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. 82% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.5 syllables. 10 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 -AA---------------- carolina · wailingA · wailingA · british · yorktown · rebecca · virginia · meanwhile · tennessee · illinois · river · grass · forests · bridges · fields · death · filipinos · grave · mine
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Oh! the dew-wet grass of the meadow in North Carolina | 15 | ·······/····˘/˘ |
| Through which Rebecca followed me wailing, wailing, | 12 | ··˘/˘/˘·/˘/˘ |
| One child in her arms, and three that ran along wailing, | 13 | ·········˘//˘ |
| Lengthening out the farewell to me off to the war with the British, | 17 | /˘˘···/········/˘ |
| And then the long, hard years down to the day of Yorktown. | 13 | ···········/· |
| And then my search for Rebecca, | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| Finding her at last in Virginia, | 9 | /˘····˘/˘ |
| Two children dead in the meanwhile. | 8 | ·/˘···/· |
| We went by oxen to Tennessee, | 9 | ···/˘··˘/ |
| Thence after years to Illinois, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| At last to Spoon River. | 6 | ····/˘ |
| We cut the buffalo grass, | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| We felled the forests, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| We built the school houses, built the bridges, | 10 | ····/˘··/˘ |
| Leveled the roads and tilled the fields | 8 | /˘······ |
| Alone with poverty, scourges, death— | 9 | ˘/·/˘˘/˘· |
| If Harry Wilmans who fought the Filipinos | 12 | ·/˘······˘/˘ |
| Is to have a flag on his grave | 8 | ········ |
| Take it from mine. | 4 | ···· |
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.