Reuben Bright
Because he was a butcher and therebyDid earn an honest living (and did right),I would not have you think that Reuben BrightWas any more a brute than you or I;For when they told him that his wife must die,He stared at them, and shook with grief and fright,And cried like a great baby half that night,And made the women cry to see him cry.
And after she was dead, and he had paidThe singers and the sexton and the rest,He packed a lot of things that she had madeMost mournfully away in an old chestOf hers, and put some chopped-up cedar boughsIn with them, and tore down the slaughter-house.
Words in this poem
- shook v. t.
- To pack, as staves, in a shook.
- tore n.
- The dead grass that remains on mowing land in winter and spring. Mortimer. [Probably from the root of tear; cf. W. tór a break, cut, tóri to break, cut.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Reuben Bright is in the public domain. This text is taken from Children of the Night, Project Gutenberg ebook #313; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edwin Arlington Robinson, Reuben Bright, in The Children of the Night (1897), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #313, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/robinson-children-of-night/reuben-bright.html, id L08012.
Form and metre
Reuben Bright is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 43% 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 ABBAABBA therebyA · rightB · brightB · iA · dieA · frightB · nightB · cryA
- 2 ABAB-- paidA · restB · madeA · chestB · boughs · house
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Because he was a butcher and thereby | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Did earn an honest living (and did right), | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| I would not have you think that Reuben Bright | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Was any more a brute than you or I; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| For when they told him that his wife must die, | 10 | ·········· |
| He stared at them, and shook with grief and fright, | 10 | ·········· |
| And cried like a great baby half that night, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And made the women cry to see him cry. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And after she was dead, and he had paid | 10 | ·········· |
| The singers and the sexton and the rest, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| He packed a lot of things that she had made | 10 | ·········· |
| Most mournfully away in an old chest | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| Of hers, and put some chopped-up cedar boughs | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| In with them, and tore down the slaughter-house. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
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.