Fletcher McGee

    She took my strength by minutes,
    She took my life by hours,
    She drained me like a fevered moon
    That saps the spinning world.
    The days went by like shadows,
    The minutes wheeled like stars.
    She took the pity from my heart,
    And made it into smiles.
    She was a hunk of sculptor's clay,
    My secret thoughts were fingers:
    They flew behind her pensive brow
    And lined it deep with pain.
    They set the lips, and sagged the cheeks,
    And drooped the eye with sorrow.
    My soul had entered in the clay,
    Fighting like seven devils.
    It was not mine, it was not hers;
    She held it, but its struggles
    Modeled a face she hated,
    And a face I feared to see.
    I beat the windows, shook the bolts.
    I hid me in a corner
    And then she died and haunted me,
    And hunted me for life.

Edgar Lee Masters

Edgar Lee Masters was an American poet, biographer, and dramatist. Born in Kansas and raised in Illinois, Masters is best known for his collection of poems entitled "Spoon River Anthology" (1915), which is a series of epitaphs of residents of the fictional small town of Spoon River. His works reflect the everyday lives and frustrations of middle America. Masters also practiced law and wrote biographies for historical figures such as Abraham Lincoln and Mark Twain.

Edgar Lee Masters

Mrs. George Reece

Edgar Lee Masters, Simple Poetry

Carl Hamblin

Edgar Lee Masters, Simple Poetry

Doctor Meyers

Edgar Lee Masters, Simple Poetry

Godwin James

Edgar Lee Masters, Simple Poetry

English

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    Their spirits beat upon mine
    Like the wings of a thousand butterflies.
    I closed my eyes and felt their spirits vibrating.
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The Sorrow Of Dead Faces

    I have seen many faces changed by the Sculptor Death,
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Edgar Lee Masters

Harmon Whitney

    Out of the lights and roar of cities,
    Drifting down like a spark in Spoon River,
    Burnt out with the fire of drink, and broken,
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    But to hide a wounded pride as well.
    To be judged and loathed by a village of little minds -
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Edgar Lee Masters

Pauline Barrett

    Almost the shell of a woman after the surgeon's knife
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    Till the dawn of our wedding decennial
    Found me my seeming self again.
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    By a path of soundless moss and turf.
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    And you could not look in my eyes,
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Edgar Lee Masters

Webster Ford

    Do you remember, O Delphic Apollo,
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    Down, down, through bellowing darkness, I carried
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Edgar Lee Masters