Imanuel Ehrenhardt

    I began with Sir William Hamilton's lectures.
    Then studied Dugald Stewart;
    And then John Locke on the Understanding,
    And then Descartes, Fichte and Schelling,
    Kant and then Schopenhauer -
    Books I borrowed from old Judge Somers.
    All read with rapturous industry
    Hoping it was reserved to me
    To grasp the tail of the ultimate secret,
    And drag it out of its hole.
    My soul flew up ten thousand miles
    And only the moon looked a little bigger.
    Then I fell back, how glad of the earth!
    All through the soul of William Jones
    Who showed me a letter of John Muir.

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

Emily Sparks

Edgar Lee Masters, Simple Poetry

The Verdict

Edgar Lee Masters, Simple Poetry

Bert Kessler

Edgar Lee Masters, Simple Poetry

Widow McFarlane

Edgar Lee Masters, Simple Poetry

English

Suggested Poems

Explore a curated selection of verses that share themes, styles, and emotional resonance with the poem you've just read.

William Jones

    Once in a while a curious weed unknown to me,
    Needing a name from my books;
    Once in a while a letter from Yeomans.
    Out of the mussel-shells gathered along the shore
    Sometimes a pearl with a glint like meadow rue:
    Then betimes a letter from Tyndall in England,
    Stamped with the stamp of Spoon River.
    I, lover of Nature, beloved for my love of her,
    Held such converse afar with the great
    Who knew her better than I.
    Oh, there is neither lesser nor greater,
    Save as we make her greater and win from her keener delight.
    With shells from the river cover me, cover me.
    I lived in wonder, worshipping earth and heaven.
    I have passed on the march eternal of endless life.

Edgar Lee Masters

Thomas Rhodes

    Very well, you liberals,
    And navigators into realms intellectual,
    You sailors through heights imaginative,
    Blown about by erratic currents, tumbling into air pockets,
    You Margaret Fuller Slacks, Petits,
    And Tennessee Claflin Shopes -
    You found with all your boasted wisdom
    How hard at the last it is
    To keep the soul from splitting into cellular atoms.
    While we, seekers of earth's treasures
    Getters and hoarders of gold,
    Are self-contained, compact, harmonized,
    Even to the end.

Edgar Lee Masters

William Marion Reedy

    He sits before you silent as Buddha,
    And then you say
    This man is Rabelais.
    And while you wonder what his stock is,
    English or Irish, you behold his eyes
    As big and brown as those desirable crockies
    With which as boys we used to play.
    And then you see the spherical light that lies
    Just under the iris coloring,
    Before which everything,
    Becomes as plain as day.

    If you have noticed the rolling jowls
    And the face that speaks its chief
    Delight in beer and roast beef
    Before you have seen his eyes, you see
    A man of fleshly jollity,
    Like the friars of old in gowns and cowls
    To make a show of scowls.
    And when he speaks from an orotund depth that growls
    In a humorous way...

Edgar Lee Masters

Oaks Tutt

    My mother was for woman's rights
    And my father was the rich miller at London Mills.
    I dreamed of the wrongs of the world and wanted to right them.
    When my father died, I set out to see peoples and countries
    In order to learn how to reform the world.
    I traveled through many lands. I saw the ruins of Rome
    And the ruins of Athens, And the ruins of Thebes.
    And I sat by moonlight amid the necropolis of Memphis.
    There I was caught up by wings of flame,
    And a voice from heaven said to me:
    "Injustice, Untruth destroyed them.
    Go forth Preach Justice! Preach Truth!"
    And I hastened back to Spoon River
    To say farewell to my mother before beginning my work.
    They all saw a strange light in my eye.
    And by and by, whe...

Edgar Lee Masters

Robert Davidson

    I grew spiritually fat living off the souls of men.
    If I saw a soul that was strong
    I wounded its pride and devoured its strength.
    The shelters of friendship knew my cunning
    For where I could steal a friend I did so.
    And wherever I could enlarge my power
    By undermining ambition, I did so,
    Thus to make smooth my own.
    And to triumph over other souls,
    Just to assert and prove my superior strength,
    Was with me a delight,
    The keen exhilaration of soul gymnastics.
    Devouring souls, I should have lived forever.
    But their undigested remains bred in me a deadly nephritis,
    With fear, restlessness, sinking spirits,
    Hatred, suspicion, vision disturbed.
    I collapsed at last with a shriek.
    Remember t...

Edgar Lee Masters

Tennessee Claflin Shope

    I was the laughing-stock of the village,
    Chiefly of the people of good sense, as they call themselves -
    Also of the learned, like Rev. Peet, who read Greek
    The same as English.
    For instead of talking free trade,
    Or preaching some form of baptism;
    Instead of believing in the efficacy
    Of walking cracks, picking up pins the right way,
    Seeing the new moon over the right shoulder,
    Or curing rheumatism with blue glass,
    I asserted the sovereignty of my own soul.
    Before Mary Baker G. Eddy even got started
    With what she called science I had mastered the "Bhagavad Gita,"
    And cured my soul, before Mary Began to cure bodies with souls -
    Peace to all worlds!

Edgar Lee Masters