Analysis of Mrs. Merritt
Edgar Lee Masters 1868 (Garnett) – 1950 (Elkins Park)
Silent before the jury,
Returning no word to the judge when he asked me
If I had aught to say against the sentence,
Only shaking my head.
What could I say to people who thought
That a woman of thirty-five was at fault
When her lover of nineteen killed her husband?
Even though she had said to him over and over,
"Go away, Elmer, go far away,
I have maddened your brain with the gift of my body:
You will do some terrible thing."
And just as I feared, he killed my husband;
With which I had nothing to do, before God!
Silent for thirty years in prison!
And the iron gates of Joliet
Swung as the gray and silent trusties
Carried me out in a coffin.
Scheme | AABCDEFGHAIFJKLBM |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1001010 010111011111 11111101010 101011 111111011 10101101111 10101111010 1011111110010 101101101 111111011110 11111001 0111111110 11111011011 101101010 00101110 11010101 10110010 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 638 |
Words | 130 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 17 |
Lines Amount | 17 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 501 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 127 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 38 sec read
- 130 Views
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"Mrs. Merritt" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/8666/mrs.-merritt>.
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