Nicholas Bindle
Were you not ashamed, fellow citizens,When my estate was probated and everyone knewHow small a fortune I left?—You who hounded me in life,To give, give, give to the churches, to the poor,To the village!—me who had already given much.And think you not I did not knowThat the pipe-organ, which I gave to the church,Played its christening songs when Deacon Rhodes,Who broke and all but ruined me,Worshipped for the first time after his acquittal?
Words in this poem
- everyone n.
- Everybody; -- commonly separated, every one. [OE. everychon.]
- broke v. i.
- To transact business for another. Brome. [See Broker, and cf. Brook.]
- acquittal n.
- The act of acquitting; discharge from debt or obligation; acquittance.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Nicholas Bindle 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, Nicholas Bindle, in Spoon River Anthology (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1280, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masters-spoon-river/nicholas-bindle.html, id L07782.
Form and metre
Nicholas Bindle is 11 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 18% 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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Were you not ashamed, fellow citizens, | 10 | ···˘//˘/˘˘ |
| When my estate was probated and everyone knew | 13 | ··˘/·/·˘·/˘·· |
| How small a fortune I left?— | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| You who hounded me in life, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| To give, give, give to the churches, to the poor, | 11 | ······/˘··· |
| To the village!—me who had already given much. | 13 | ··/˘···˘/˘/˘· |
| And think you not I did not know | 8 | ········ |
| That the pipe-organ, which I gave to the church, | 11 | ···/˘······ |
| Played its christening songs when Deacon Rhodes, | 10 | ··/˘˘··/˘· |
| Who broke and all but ruined me, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Worshipped for the first time after his acquittal? | 12 | /˘·······˘/˘ |
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.