Edgar Lee Masters’ Spoon River Anthology published in 1915 is a collection of more than two hundred poems, written in the form of post-mortem autobiographical epitaphs of ordinary residents of a fictional small American town called Spoon River in Illinois.
Spoon River Anthology is a 1915 collection of poems written in free verse by Edgar Lee Masters, an American dramatist, lawyer, and poet. They provide a holistic inventory of the multitude of life narratives making up a fictional town called Spoon River, loosely based on a river that wound around Masters’s hometown, Lewistown, Illinois.
In Spoon River Anthology, Edgar Lee Masters collects 246 poems ("epitaphs"), each written from the point of view of a deceased citizen of Spoon River. Each citizen has his or her unique view of the world, and the epitaphs they deliver collectively form a narrative of their small town.
S poon River Anthology is a collection of poems (called "epitaphs") written from the points of view of deceased citizens of a fictional small town. In the first poem, a cemetery speaks about the villagers buried on its grassy hill.
Spoon River Anthology Summary 1 In the first poem, a cemetery speaks about the villagers buried on its grassy hill. 2 Some of the characters in the collection include Mr. Painter, a lawyer; Mr. Trainor, a druggist; the self-righteous Judge Somers; and a drunkard, Chase Henry, who has been gifted an expensive tombstone. 3 Many of the poems refer to previous ones, giving the sense that the lives of Spoon River's residents were deeply intertwined.
Spoon River Anthology encourages and almost demands the rereadings of epitaphs, because almost all these poems make references to characters and events mentioned in other poems. The reader soon comes to appreciate that each inhabitant of Spoon River expresses a partial and very personal perception of reality. The speakers, who are all now dead, will never understand that their views of themselves differ greatly from the opinions held by their fellow villagers. Each rereading of epitaphs helps one to see beyond appearances in order to discover the hidden and complex emotional and social realities in this village.
These 246 epitaphs express a microcosm of almost any town—be it in the United States or elsewhere—from any century. Successive generations of readers have discovered many different levels of meaning in these poems.
The self-righteous Judge Somers is angry because he was buried in an unmarked grave, whereas an impressive marble tombstone was erected over the grave of the town drunkard, Chase Henry, who is amused by this unexpected and undeserved honor. He was a Catholic, but the local Catholic priest would not permit the burial of Henry in consecrated ground. For reasons that Henry has never understood, certain Protestants took umbrage at this decision and decided to honor him with an expensive tombstone. Chase Henry appreciated the irony of this situation. He tells his listeners: “Take note, ye prudent and pious souls,/ Of the cross-currents in life/ Which bring honor to the dead, who lived in shame.” Henry knows that his tombstone, topped with a large urn, means nothing. It was erected by irrational people angered by the priest’s refusal to permit the burial of Chase Henry in a Catholic cemetery.
He affirms that they were “Good in themselves, but evil toward each other: He oxygen, she hydrogen.” This chemical comparison suggests that the Painters might have attained happiness and inner peace if they had never married each other.
The love of which Emily and William speak may refer also to one’s family and to society as a whole. Love of country is a theme frequently treated in the Spoon River Anthology. Masters never confused love of country with admiration for politicians. He was a Populist and consistently questioned the motives of politicians and members of the ruling class. He portrayed the leading figures in Spoon River, such as Mayor Blood, the circuit judge, Judge Somers, and state legislator Adam Weinrauch, as amoral individuals who abused their authority for personal gain by selling their votes or judicial decisions to the highest bidders. These vain men still do not understand why the townspeople held them in such low esteem. While they possessed power they were feared; in death, however, these members of the ruling class have received poetic justice.
Masters began this book with a powerful poem titled “The Hill.” As its title suggests, this poem is spoken by the cemetery itself, which is located on a hill overlooking the town. The cemetery asks repeatedly “where” certain villagers now are; the answer is not that they are in Heaven. The cemetery repeatedly answers its own question by responding: “All, all are sleeping on the hill.” This eternal “sleep” has brought little consolation to those whose lives were filled with unhappiness. The solitude and loneliness of those “whom life had crushed” have become permanent.
Barney Hainsfeather, a Jewish clothier from Chicago, is buried in Spoon River by mistake. Carl Hamblin. The editor of the Clarion, Spoon River's liberal newspaper, Carl Hamblin protests against the kind of justice meted out to the laboring classes. Constance Hately.
Daisy Fraser. Daisy Fraser is an outspoken woman who lives in a small house on the edge of town. She may be the town prostitute, though this is never directly stated. Read More. Thomas Rhodes. Thomas Rhodes is the president of Spoon River's bank and the man arguably responsible for its failure.
Silas Dement burns down the Spoon River courthouse and is sent to prison.
Caroline Branson tells, in cryptic terms, of a love affair that leads to the creation of a suicide pact. Jim Brown, a horse wrangler, divides the people of Spoon River into two groups: those who love life and those who oppress others with religion.
Jeremy Carlisle talks of gradually coming to see his neighbors as they are. He likens the process to that of a photograph being developed.
Hare Drummer's poem is an ode to the pleasures of autumn, which Hare remembers every year as the acorns begin to fall.
Nellie Clark, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, is later abandoned by her husband for not "really [being] a virgin" when they get married.
Would you also like to receive our weekly Real Estate newsletter? Would you prefer to receive only the Real Estate newsletter?
Website by Web Publisher PRO © 2021 The Berkshire Edge, LLC. All rights reserved. Read our Terms of Use
Edgar Lee Masters’ Spoon River Anthology published in 1915 is a collection of more than two hundred poems, written in the form of post-mortem autobiographical epitaphs of ordinary residents of a fictional small American town called Spoon River in Illinois.
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 158 ( 2014 ) 402 – 409 Available online at www.sciencedirect.com 1877-0428 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).
The residents of the fictional town of Spoon River speak from the grave about their life — the good and more often, the bad or bitter parts of it, dreams unfulfilled and hopes repressed.
One hundred years ago, Edgar Lee Masters , who spent much of his youth in Lewistown, used the cemetery as the basis for "the hill," the resting place for characters who speak from the grave about their lives and — often critically — about the lives of others in his book "Spoon River Anthology."
Louis periodical. In 1915, the entire collection of 244 poems was published. Masters continued to write novels and poetry, but none garnered the attention "Spoon River Anthology" did.
Last year an Italian film crew stayed in the area for three weeks and selected local citizens to recite passages of the book for the documentary "Return To Spoon River," which is scheduled to premiere Nov. 26 at the Torino Film Festival in Italy.
Last year Sampson persuaded his daughter, Amanda Woodruff, president of the Fulton County Arts Council, to help in a yearlong effort to honor the noted author.
In "Anthology," the prominent editor, "Editor Whedon, " who speaks of perverting the truth and publishing scandal to sell papers, is believed to be based on Davidson, of whom Masters was critical in real life. In fact, Masters' first published poem at 16 ran in another local newspaper blasting Davidson.
Folks were more emotional when Masters' book of modern free verse poetry was published in 1915. Nationwide, it was an immediate hit, acclaimed by literary fans and critics. But at home, it was just as quickly condemned.