Widow McFarlane
I was the Widow McFarlane,Weaver of carpets for all the village.And I pity you still at the loom of life,You who are singing to the shuttleAnd lovingly watching the work of your hands,If you reach the day of hate, of terrible truth.For the cloth of life is woven, you know,To a pattern hidden under the loom—A pattern you never see!And you weave high-hearted, singing, singing,You guard the threads of love and friendshipFor noble figures in gold and purple.And long after other eyes can seeYou have woven a moon-white strip of cloth,You laugh in your strength, for Hope overlays itWith shapes of love and beauty.The loom stops short!The pattern’s outYou’re alone in the room!You have woven a shroudAnd hate of it lays you in it.
Words in this poem
- lovingly adv.
- With love; affectionately.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Widow McFarlane 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, Widow McFarlane, in Spoon River Anthology (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1280, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masters-spoon-river/widow-mcfarlane.html, id L07851.
Form and metre
Widow McFarlane is 21 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 77%). 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.7 syllables. 7 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 29% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 -------AB---B-C---A-C mcfarlane · village · life · shuttle · hands · truth · know · loomA · seeB · singing · friendship · purple · seeB · cloth · itC · beauty · short · out · roomA · shroud · itC
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I was the Widow McFarlane, | 8 | ···/˘˘/˘ |
| Weaver of carpets for all the village. | 10 | /˘·/˘···/˘ |
| And I pity you still at the loom of life, | 11 | ··/˘······· |
| You who are singing to the shuttle | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| And lovingly watching the work of your hands, | 11 | ·/˘˘/˘····· |
| If you reach the day of hate, of terrible truth. | 12 | ········/˘˘· |
| For the cloth of life is woven, you know, | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| To a pattern hidden under the loom— | 10 | ··/˘/˘···· |
| A pattern you never see! | 7 | ·/˘·/˘· |
| And you weave high-hearted, singing, singing, | 10 | ····/˘/˘/˘ |
| You guard the threads of love and friendship | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| For noble figures in gold and purple. | 10 | ·/˘/˘···/˘ |
| And long after other eyes can see | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| You have woven a moon-white strip of cloth, | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| You laugh in your strength, for Hope overlays it | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| With shapes of love and beauty. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| The loom stops short! | 4 | ···· |
| The pattern’s out | 4 | ·/˘· |
| You’re alone in the room! | 6 | ·˘/··· |
| You have woven a shroud | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| And hate of it lays you in it. | 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.