Robert Fulton Tanner
If a man could bite the giant handThat catches and destroys him,As I was bitten by a ratWhile demonstrating my patent trap,In my hardware store that day.But a man can never avenge himselfOn the monstrous ogre Life.You enter the room—that’s being born;And then you must live—work out your soul,Aha! the bait that you crave is in view:A woman with money you want to marry,Prestige, place, or power in the world.But there’s work to do and things to conquer—Oh, yes! the wires that screen the bait.At last you get in—but you hear a step:The ogre, Life, comes into the room,(He was waiting and heard the clang of the spring)To watch you nibble the wondrous cheese,And stare with his burning eyes at you,And scowl and laugh, and mock and curse you,Running up and down in the trap,Until your misery bores him.
Words in this poem
- hardware n.
- Ware made of metal, as cutlery, kitchen utensils, and the like; ironmongery.
- crave v. t.
- To ask with earnestness or importunity; to ask with submission or humility; to beg; to entreat; to beseech; to implore. [AS. crafian; akin to Icel. krefia, Sw. kr, Dan. kr.]
- prestige n.
- Delusion; illusion; trick. [F., fr. L. praestigum delusion, illusion, praestigae deceptions, jugglers' tricks, prob. fr. prae before + the root of stinguere to extinguish, originally, to p]
- clang v. t.
- To strike together so as to produce a ringing metallic sound. [L. clangere; akin to Gr. clank.]
- wondrous adv.
- In a wonderful or surprising manner or degree; wonderfully. [OE. wonders, adv. (later also adj.). See Wonder, n., and cf. -wards.]
- scowl v. i.
- To wrinkle the brows, as in frowning or displeasure; to put on a frowning look; to look sour, sullen, severe, or angry. [Akin to Dan. skule; cf. Icel. skolla to skulk, LG. schulen to hide one's self, D. schuilen, G. schielen to squint, Dan. skele, Sw. skela, AS. sceolh squinting. ]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Robert Fulton Tanner 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, Robert Fulton Tanner, in Spoon River Anthology (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1280, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masters-spoon-river/robert-fulton-tanner.html, id L07746.
Form and metre
Robert Fulton Tanner is 22 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%). 88% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.9 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 14% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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-----C--------CCBA hand · himA · rat · trapB · day · himself · life · born · soul · viewC · marry · world · conquer · bait · step · room · spring · cheese · youC · youC · trapB · himA
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| If a man could bite the giant hand | 9 | ······/˘· |
| That catches and destroys him, | 7 | ·/˘·˘/· |
| As I was bitten by a rat | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| While demonstrating my patent trap, | 9 | ·/˘·˘·/˘· |
| In my hardware store that day. | 7 | ··/···· |
| But a man can never avenge himself | 9 | ····/˘/˘/ |
| On the monstrous ogre Life. | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| You enter the room—that’s being born; | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| And then you must live—work out your soul, | 9 | ········· |
| Aha! the bait that you crave is in view: | 10 | ·/········ |
| A woman with money you want to marry, | 11 | ·/˘·/˘···/˘ |
| Prestige, place, or power in the world. | 9 | ˘/··/˘··· |
| But there’s work to do and things to conquer— | 10 | ········/˘ |
| Oh, yes! the wires that screen the bait. | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| At last you get in—but you hear a step: | 10 | ·········· |
| The ogre, Life, comes into the room, | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| (He was waiting and heard the clang of the spring) | 11 | ··/˘······· |
| To watch you nibble the wondrous cheese, | 9 | ···/˘·/˘· |
| And stare with his burning eyes at you, | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| And scowl and laugh, and mock and curse you, | 9 | ········· |
| Running up and down in the trap, | 8 | /˘······ |
| Until your misery bores him. | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
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.