Samuel Gardner
I who kept the greenhouse,Lover of trees and flowers,Oft in life saw this umbrageous elm,Measuring its generous branches with my eye,And listened to its rejoicing leavesLovingly patting each otherWith sweet aeolian whispers.And well they might:For the roots had grown so wide and deepThat the soil of the hill could not withholdAught of its virtue, enriched by rain,And warmed by the sun;But yielded it all to the thrifty roots,Through which it was drawn and whirled to the trunk,And thence to the branches, and into the leaves,Wherefrom the breeze took life and sang.Now I, an under-tenant of the earth, can seeThat the branches of a treeSpread no wider than its roots.And how shall the soul of a manBe larger than the life he has lived?
Words in this poem
- greenhouse n.
- A house in which tender plants are cultivated and sheltered from the weather.
- umbrageous a.
- Forming or affording a shade; shady; shaded; as, umbrageous trees or foliage. [Cf. F. ombraqeux shy, skittish, suspicious, in OF. also, shady. See Umbrage.]
- generous a.
- Of honorable birth or origin; highborn. [F. généreux, fr. L. generous of noble birth, noble, excellent, magnanimous, fr. genus birth, race: cf. It. generoso. See 2d Gender.]
- lovingly adv.
- With love; affectionately.
- aught n.
- Property; possession. [AS. , fr. agan to own, p. p. ahte.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Samuel Gardner 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, Samuel Gardner, in Spoon River Anthology (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1280, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masters-spoon-river/samuel-gardner.html, id L07940.
Form and metre
Samuel Gardner is 21 lines in a single stanza. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter. 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.4 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 33% 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-A-CCB-- greenhouse · flowers · elm · eye · leavesA · other · whispers · might · deep · withhold · rain · sun · rootsB · trunk · leavesA · sang · seeC · treeC · rootsB · man · lived
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I who kept the greenhouse, | 6 | ····/· |
| Lover of trees and flowers, | 7 | /˘···/˘ |
| Oft in life saw this umbrageous elm, | 9 | ·····˘/˘· |
| Measuring its generous branches with my eye, | 12 | /˘˘·/˘˘/˘··· |
| And listened to its rejoicing leaves | 9 | ·/˘··˘/˘· |
| Lovingly patting each other | 8 | /˘˘/˘·/˘ |
| With sweet aeolian whispers. | 6 | ····/˘ |
| And well they might: | 4 | ···· |
| For the roots had grown so wide and deep | 9 | ········· |
| That the soil of the hill could not withhold | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Aught of its virtue, enriched by rain, | 9 | ···/˘˘/·· |
| And warmed by the sun; | 5 | ····· |
| But yielded it all to the thrifty roots, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Through which it was drawn and whirled to the trunk, | 10 | ·········· |
| And thence to the branches, and into the leaves, | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| Wherefrom the breeze took life and sang. | 9 | ········· |
| Now I, an under-tenant of the earth, can see | 12 | ·····/˘····· |
| That the branches of a tree | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Spread no wider than its roots. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| And how shall the soul of a man | 8 | ········ |
| Be larger than the life he has lived? | 9 | ·/˘······ |
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.