The Unknown
Ye aspiring ones, listen to the story of the unknownWho lies here with no stone to mark the place.As a boy reckless and wanton,Wandering with gun in hand through the forestNear the mansion of Aaron Hatfield,I shot a hawk perched on the topOf a dead tree. He fell with guttural cryAt my feet, his wing broken.Then I put him in a cageWhere he lived many days cawing angrily at meWhen I offered him food.Daily I search the realms of HadesFor the soul of the hawk,That I may offer him the friendshipOf one whom life wounded and caged.
Words in this poem
- aspiring a.
- That aspires; as, an Aspiring mind.
- mansion n.
- A dwelling place, -- whether a part or whole of a house or other shelter. [OF. mansion, F. maison, fr. L. mansio a staying, remaining, a dwelling, habitation, fr. manere, mansum, to stay, dwell; akin to Gr. Manse, Manor, Menagerie, Men]
- caged a.
- Confined in, or as in, a cage; like a cage or prison.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Unknown 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, The Unknown, in Spoon River Anthology (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1280, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masters-spoon-river/the-unknown.html, id L07849.
Form and metre
The Unknown is 15 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. 80% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.1 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 53% 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-A---B--B----- unknownA · place · wantonA · forest · hatfield · top · cryB · broken · cage · meB · food · hades · hawk · friendship · caged
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Ye aspiring ones, listen to the story of the unknown | 15 | ·˘/˘·/˘··/˘··˘/ |
| Who lies here with no stone to mark the place. | 10 | ·········· |
| As a boy reckless and wanton, | 8 | ···/˘·/˘ |
| Wandering with gun in hand through the forest | 11 | /˘˘······/˘ |
| Near the mansion of Aaron Hatfield, | 9 | ··/˘·/˘/· |
| I shot a hawk perched on the top | 8 | ········ |
| Of a dead tree. He fell with guttural cry | 11 | ·······/˘˘· |
| At my feet, his wing broken. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Then I put him in a cage | 7 | ······· |
| Where he lived many days cawing angrily at me | 13 | ···/˘···/˘˘·· |
| When I offered him food. | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| Daily I search the realms of Hades | 9 | /˘·····/˘ |
| For the soul of the hawk, | 6 | ······ |
| That I may offer him the friendship | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| Of one whom life wounded and caged. | 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.