Analysis of Josiah Tompkins

Edgar Lee Masters 1868 (Garnett) – 1950 (Elkins Park)



I was well known and much beloved
And rich, as fortunes are reckoned
In Spoon River, where I had lived and worked.
That was the home for me,
Though all my children had flown afar—
Which is the way of Nature—all but one.
The boy, who was the baby, stayed at home,
To be my help in my failing years
And the solace of his mother.
But I grew weaker, as he grew stronger,
And he quarreled with me about the business,
And his wife said I was a hindrance to it;
And he won his mother to see as he did,
Till they tore me up to be transplanted
With them to her girlhood home in Missouri.
And so much of my fortune was gone at last,
Though I made the will just as he drew it,
He profited little by it.


Scheme ABCDEFGHIIJKLLDMKK
Poetic Form
Metre 11110101 01110110 0110111101 110111 111101101 1101110111 0111010111 111101101 00101110 1111011110 01101101010 01111101011 01111011111 1111111010 1110110010 01111101111 1110111111 11001011
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 703
Words 145
Sentences 6
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 18
Lines Amount 18
Letters per line (avg) 29
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 529
Words per stanza (avg) 143
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

43 sec read
91

Edgar Lee Masters

Edgar Lee Masters was an American poet, biographer, and dramatist. more…

All Edgar Lee Masters poems | Edgar Lee Masters Books

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