Julia Miller
We quarreled that morning,For he was sixty—five, and I was thirty,And I was nervous and heavy with the childWhose birth I dreaded.I thought over the last letter written meBy that estranged young soulWhose betrayal of me I had concealedBy marrying the old man.Then I took morphine and sat down to read.Across the blackness that came over my eyesI see the flickering light of these words even now:“And Jesus said unto him, VerilyI say unto thee, To-day thou shaltBe with me in paradise.”
Words in this poem
- betrayal n.
- The act or the result of betraying.
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Julia Miller 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, Julia Miller, in Spoon River Anthology (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1280, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masters-spoon-river/julia-miller.html, id L07773.
Form and metre
Julia Miller is 14 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%). 83% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.1 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 50% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter, other poems in blank verse.
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--------- morning · thirtyA · child · dreaded · meA · soul · concealed · man · read · eyes · now · verily · shalt · paradise
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| We quarreled that morning, | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| For he was sixty—five, and I was thirty, | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| And I was nervous and heavy with the child | 11 | ···/˘·/˘··· |
| Whose birth I dreaded. | 5 | ···/˘ |
| I thought over the last letter written me | 11 | ······/˘/˘· |
| By that estranged young soul | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| Whose betrayal of me I had concealed | 10 | ·˘/˘····˘/ |
| By marrying the old man. | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| Then I took morphine and sat down to read. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Across the blackness that came over my eyes | 11 | ˘/·/˘······ |
| I see the flickering light of these words even now: | 13 | ···/˘˘····/˘· |
| “And Jesus said unto him, Verily | 10 | ·/˘····/˘˘ |
| I say unto thee, To-day thou shalt | 9 | ········· |
| Be with me in paradise.” | 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.