Sarah Brown
Maurice, weep not, I am not here under this pine tree.The balmy air of spring whispers through the sweet grass,The stars sparkle, the whippoorwill calls,But thou grievest, while my soul lies rapturousIn the blest Nirvana of eternal light!Go to the good heart that is my husbandWho broods upon what he calls our guilty love:—Tell him that my love for you, no less than my love for himWrought out my destiny—that through the fleshI won spirit, and through spirit, peace.There is no marriage in heavenBut there is love.
Words in this poem
- balmy a.
- Having the qualities of balm; odoriferous; aromatic; assuaging; soothing; refreshing; mild.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sarah Brown 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, Sarah Brown, in Spoon River Anthology (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1280, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masters-spoon-river/sarah-brown.html, id L07770.
Form and metre
Sarah Brown is 12 lines in a single stanza. 83% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 42% 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-A--B----B tree · grassA · calls · rapturousA · light · husband · loveB · him · flesh · peace · heaven · loveB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Maurice, weep not, I am not here under this pine tree. | 13 | ˘/··········· |
| The balmy air of spring whispers through the sweet grass, | 12 | ·/˘···/˘···· |
| The stars sparkle, the whippoorwill calls, | 8 | ··/˘·/˘· |
| But thou grievest, while my soul lies rapturous | 11 | ··/˘····/˘˘ |
| In the blest Nirvana of eternal light! | 11 | ···˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| Go to the good heart that is my husband | 10 | ········/˘ |
| Who broods upon what he calls our guilty love:— | 12 | ·······/˘/˘· |
| Tell him that my love for you, no less than my love for him | 14 | ·············· |
| Wrought out my destiny—that through the flesh | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| I won spirit, and through spirit, peace. | 9 | ··/˘··/˘· |
| There is no marriage in heaven | 8 | ···/˘·/˘ |
| But there is love. | 4 | ···· |
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.