Willard Fluke
My wife lost her health,And dwindled until she weighed scarce ninety pounds.Then that woman, whom the menStyled Cleopatra, came along.And we—we married onesAll broke our vows, myself among the rest.Years passed and one by oneDeath claimed them all in some hideous formAnd I was borne along by dreamsOf God’s particular grace for me,And I began to write, write, write, reams on reamsOf the second coming of Christ.Then Christ came to me and said,“Go into the church and stand before the congregationAnd confess your sin.”But just as I stood up and began to speakI saw my little girl, who was sitting in the front seat—My little girl who was born blind!After that, all is blackness.
Words in this poem
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
- broke v. i.
- To transact business for another. Brome. [See Broker, and cf. Brook.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Willard Fluke 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, Willard Fluke, in Spoon River Anthology (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1280, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masters-spoon-river/willard-fluke.html, id L07788.
Form and metre
Willard Fluke 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. 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.7 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 42% 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--BB---- health · pounds · men · along · ones · rest · one · form · dreamsA · me · reamsA · christ · said · congregationB · sinB · speak · seat · blind · blackness
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 wife lost her health, | 5 | ····· |
| And dwindled until she weighed scarce ninety pounds. | 11 | ·/˘·····/˘· |
| Then that woman, whom the men | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Styled Cleopatra, came along. | 8 | ··˘/˘·˘/ |
| And we—we married ones | 6 | ···/˘· |
| All broke our vows, myself among the rest. | 11 | ··/˘··/···· |
| Years passed and one by one | 6 | ······ |
| Death claimed them all in some hideous form | 10 | ······/˘˘· |
| And I was borne along by dreams | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Of God’s particular grace for me, | 9 | ··˘/˘˘··· |
| And I began to write, write, write, reams on reams | 11 | ··˘/······· |
| Of the second coming of Christ. | 8 | ··/˘/˘·· |
| Then Christ came to me and said, | 7 | ······· |
| “Go into the church and stand before the congregation | 14 | ···········˘/˘ |
| And confess your sin.” | 5 | ·˘/·· |
| But just as I stood up and began to speak | 11 | ·······˘/·· |
| I saw my little girl, who was sitting in the front seat— | 14 | ···/˘···/˘···· |
| My little girl who was born blind! | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| After that, all is blackness. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
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.