Seth Compton
When I died, the circulating libraryWhich I built up for Spoon River,And managed for the good of inquiring minds,Was sold at auction on the public square,As if to destroy the last vestigeOf my memory and influence.For those of you who could not see the virtueOf knowing Volney’s “Ruins” as well as Butler’s “Analogy”And “Faust” as well as “Evangeline,”Were really the power in the village,And often you asked me“What is the use of knowing the evil in the world?”I am out of your way now, Spoon River,Choose your own good and call it good.For I could never make you seeThat no one knows what is goodWho knows not what is evil;And no one knows what is trueWho knows not what is false.
About this text
Seth Compton 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, Seth Compton, in Spoon River Anthology (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1280, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masters-spoon-river/seth-compton.html, id L07887.
Form and metre
Seth Compton is 19 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. 86% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.3 syllables. 9 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 37% 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-ACBC--- library · riverA · minds · square · vestige · influence · virtue · analogy · evangeline · village · meB · world · riverA · goodC · seeB · goodC · evil · true · false
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When I died, the circulating library | 11 | ····/˘·˘/·˘ |
| Which I built up for Spoon River, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| And managed for the good of inquiring minds, | 12 | ·/˘····˘/˘˘· |
| Was sold at auction on the public square, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| As if to destroy the last vestige | 9 | ···˘/··/˘ |
| Of my memory and influence. | 9 | ··/˘˘·/˘˘ |
| For those of you who could not see the virtue | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| Of knowing Volney’s “Ruins” as well as Butler’s “Analogy” | 16 | ·/˘/˘/˘···/˘˘/˘˘ |
| And “Faust” as well as “Evangeline,” | 9 | ·····˘/˘· |
| Were really the power in the village, | 10 | ·/˘·/˘··/˘ |
| And often you asked me | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| “What is the use of knowing the evil in the world?” | 13 | ·····/˘·/˘··· |
| I am out of your way now, Spoon River, | 10 | ········/˘ |
| Choose your own good and call it good. | 8 | ········ |
| For I could never make you see | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| That no one knows what is good | 7 | ······· |
| Who knows not what is evil; | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| And no one knows what is true | 7 | ······· |
| Who knows not what is false. | 6 | ······ |
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.