Walter Simmons
My parents thought that I would beAs great as Edison or greater:For as a boy I made balloonsAnd wondrous kites and toys with clocksAnd little engines with tracks to run onAnd telephones of cans and thread.I played the cornet and painted pictures,Modeled in clay and took the partOf the villain in the “Octoroon.”But then at twenty-one I marriedAnd had to live, and so, to liveI learned the trade of making watchesAnd kept the jewelry store on the square,Thinking, thinking, thinking, thinking,—Not of business, but of the engineI studied the calculus to build.And all Spoon River watched and waitedTo see it work, but it never worked.And a few kind souls believed my geniusWas somehow hampered by the store.It wasn’t true.The truth was this:I did not have the brains.
Words in this poem
- wondrous adv.
- In a wonderful or surprising manner or degree; wonderfully. [OE. wonders, adv. (later also adj.). See Wonder, n., and cf. -wards.]
- octoroon n.
- The offspring of a quadroon and a white person; a mestee. [L. octo eight + -roon, as in quadroon.]
- somehow adv.
- In one way or another; in some way not yet known or designated; by some means; as, the thing must be done somehow; he lives somehow.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Walter Simmons 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, Walter Simmons, in Spoon River Anthology (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1280, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masters-spoon-river/walter-simmons.html, id L07870.
Form and metre
Walter Simmons is 23 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.3 syllables. 8 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 48% 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- be · greater · balloons · clocks · on · threadA · pictures · part · octoroon · marriedA · live · watches · square · thinking · engine · build · waited · worked · geniusB · store · true · thisB · brains
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 |
|---|---|---|
| My parents thought that I would be | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| As great as Edison or greater: | 9 | ···/˘˘·/˘ |
| For as a boy I made balloons | 8 | ······˘/ |
| And wondrous kites and toys with clocks | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And little engines with tracks to run on | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| And telephones of cans and thread. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| I played the cornet and painted pictures, | 10 | ···˘/·/˘/˘ |
| Modeled in clay and took the part | 8 | /˘······ |
| Of the villain in the “Octoroon.” | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| But then at twenty-one I married | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| And had to live, and so, to live | 8 | ········ |
| I learned the trade of making watches | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| And kept the jewelry store on the square, | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| Thinking, thinking, thinking, thinking,— | 8 | /˘/˘/˘/˘ |
| Not of business, but of the engine | 9 | ··/˘···/˘ |
| I studied the calculus to build. | 9 | ·/˘·/˘˘·· |
| And all Spoon River watched and waited | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| To see it work, but it never worked. | 9 | ······/˘· |
| And a few kind souls believed my genius | 10 | ·····˘/·/˘ |
| Was somehow hampered by the store. | 8 | ·/·/˘··· |
| It wasn’t true. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| The truth was this: | 4 | ···· |
| I did not have the brains. | 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.