Zenas Witt
I was sixteen, and I had the most terrible dreams,And specks before my eyes, and nervous weakness.And I couldn’t remember the books I read,Like Frank Drummer who memorized page after page.And my back was weak, and I worried and worried,And I was embarrassed and stammered my lessons,And when I stood up to recite I’d forgetEverything that I had studied.Well, I saw Dr. Weese’s advertisement,And there I read everything in print,Just as if he had known me;And about the dreams which I couldn’t help.So I knew I was marked for an early grave.And I worried until I had a coughAnd then the dreams stopped.And then I slept the sleep without dreamsHere on the hill by the river.
Words in this poem
- drummer n.
- One whose office is to best the drum, as in military exercises and marching.
- advertisement n.
- The act of informing or notifying; notification. [F.avertisement, formerly also spelled advertissement, a warning, giving notice, fr. avertir.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Zenas Witt 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, Zenas Witt, in Spoon River Anthology (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1280, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masters-spoon-river/zenas-witt.html, id L07776.
Form and metre
Zenas Witt is 17 lines in a single stanza. 83% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 18% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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-B---CC-----A- dreamsA · weakness · readB · page · worriedB · lessons · forget · studied · advertisementC · printC · me · help · grave · cough · stopped · dreamsA · river
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I was sixteen, and I had the most terrible dreams, | 13 | ··˘/·····/˘˘· |
| And specks before my eyes, and nervous weakness. | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| And I couldn’t remember the books I read, | 11 | ··/˘˘/˘···· |
| Like Frank Drummer who memorized page after page. | 12 | ··/˘·/˘····· |
| And my back was weak, and I worried and worried, | 12 | ·······/˘·/˘ |
| And I was embarrassed and stammered my lessons, | 12 | ···˘/˘·/˘·/˘ |
| And when I stood up to recite I’d forget | 11 | ······˘/·˘/ |
| Everything that I had studied. | 8 | /˘····/˘ |
| Well, I saw Dr. Weese’s advertisement, | 10 | ····/˘˘/˘˘ |
| And there I read everything in print, | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| Just as if he had known me; | 7 | ······· |
| And about the dreams which I couldn’t help. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| So I knew I was marked for an early grave. | 11 | ········/˘· |
| And I worried until I had a cough | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| And then the dreams stopped. | 5 | ····· |
| And then I slept the sleep without dreams | 9 | ········· |
| Here on the hill by the river. | 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.