Oaks Tutt
My mother was for woman’s rightsAnd my father was the rich miller at London Mills.I dreamed of the wrongs of the world and wanted to right them.When my father died, I set out to see peoples and countriesIn order to learn how to reform the world.I traveled through many lands. I saw the ruins of RomeAnd the ruins of Athens, And the ruins of Thebes.And I sat by moonlight amid the necropolis of Memphis.There I was caught up by wings of flame,And a voice from heaven said to me:“Injustice, Untruth destroyed them.Go forth Preach Justice! Preach Truth!”And I hastened back to Spoon RiverTo say farewell to my mother before beginning my work.They all saw a strange light in my eye.And by and by, when I talked, they discoveredWhat had come in my mind.Then Jonathan Swift Somers challenged me to debateThe subject, (I taking the negative):“Pontius Pilate, the Greatest Philosopher of the World.”And he won the debate by saying at last,“Before you reform the world, Mr. TuttPlease answer the question of Pontius Pilate:“What is Truth?”
Words in this poem
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- necropolis n.
- A city of the dead; a name given by the ancients to their cemeteries, and sometimes applied to modern burial places; a graveyard.
- untruth n.
- The quality of being untrue; contrariety to truth; want of veracity; also, treachery; faithlessness; disloyalty.
- tutt
- Be still; hush; -- an exclamation used for checking or rebuking.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Oaks Tutt 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, Oaks Tutt, in Spoon River Anthology (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1280, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masters-spoon-river/oaks-tutt.html, id L07881.
Form and metre
Oaks Tutt is 24 lines in a single stanza. 78% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.9 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 29% 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 --A-B-----AC-----D-B--DC rights · mills · themA · countries · worldB · rome · thebes · memphis · flame · me · themA · truthC · river · work · eye · discovered · mind · debateD · negative · worldB · last · tutt · pilateD · truthC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| My mother was for woman’s rights | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And my father was the rich miller at London Mills. | 13 | ··/˘···/˘·/˘· |
| I dreamed of the wrongs of the world and wanted to right them. | 14 | ·········/˘··· |
| When my father died, I set out to see peoples and countries | 15 | ··/˘······/˘·/˘ |
| In order to learn how to reform the world. | 11 | ·/˘····˘/·· |
| I traveled through many lands. I saw the ruins of Rome | 14 | ·/˘·/˘····/˘·· |
| And the ruins of Athens, And the ruins of Thebes. | 13 | ··/˘·/˘··/˘·· |
| And I sat by moonlight amid the necropolis of Memphis. | 16 | ····/·˘/·˘/˘˘·/˘ |
| There I was caught up by wings of flame, | 9 | ········· |
| And a voice from heaven said to me: | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| “Injustice, Untruth destroyed them. | 8 | ˘/˘˘/˘/· |
| Go forth Preach Justice! Preach Truth!” | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| And I hastened back to Spoon River | 9 | ··/˘···/˘ |
| To say farewell to my mother before beginning my work. | 15 | ···/··/˘··˘/˘·· |
| They all saw a strange light in my eye. | 9 | ········· |
| And by and by, when I talked, they discovered | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| What had come in my mind. | 6 | ······ |
| Then Jonathan Swift Somers challenged me to debate | 13 | ·/˘˘·/˘/˘··˘/ |
| The subject, (I taking the negative): | 10 | ·˘/·/˘·/˘˘ |
| “Pontius Pilate, the Greatest Philosopher of the World.” | 15 | /˘˘···/˘˘/˘˘··· |
| And he won the debate by saying at last, | 11 | ····˘/·/˘·· |
| “Before you reform the world, Mr. Tutt | 10 | ···˘/··/˘· |
| Please answer the question of Pontius Pilate: | 12 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘˘·· |
| “What is Truth?” | 3 | ··· |
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.