Magrady Graham

    Tell me, was Altgeld elected Governor?
    For when the returns began to come in
    And Cleveland was sweeping the East
    It was too much for you, poor old heart,
    Who had striven for democracy
    In the long, long years of defeat.
    And like a watch that is worn
    I felt you growing slower until you stopped.
    Tell me, was Altgeld elected,
    And what did he do?
    Did they bring his head on a platter to a dancer,
    Or did he triumph for the people?
    For when I saw him
    And took his hand,
    The child-like blueness of his eyes
    Moved me to tears,
    And there was an air of eternity about him,
    Like the cold, clear light that rests at dawn
    On the hills!

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

So We Grew Together

Edgar Lee Masters, Simple Poetry

Simon Surnamed Peter

Edgar Lee Masters, Simple Poetry

Jonathan Swift Somers (Author of the Spooniad)

Edgar Lee Masters, Simple Poetry

Ippolit Konovaloff

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.

Granville Calhoun

    I wanted to be County Judge
    One more term, so as to round out a service
    Of thirty years.
    But my friends left me and joined my enemies,
    And they elected a new man.
    Then a spirit of revenge seized me,
    And I infected my four sons with it,
    And I brooded upon retaliation,
    Until the great physician, Nature,
    Smote me through with paralysis
    To give my soul and body a rest.
    Did my sons get power and money?
    Did they serve the people or yoke them,
    To till and harvest fields of self?
    For how could they ever forget
    My face at my bed-room window,
    Sitting helpless amid my golden cages
    Of singing canaries,
    Looking at the old court-house?

Edgar Lee Masters

William H. Herndon

    There by the window in the old house
    Perched on the bluff, overlooking miles of valley,
    My days of labor closed, sitting out life's decline,
    Day by day did I look in my memory,
    As one who gazes in an enchantress' crystal globe,
    And I saw the figures of the past
    As if in a pageant glassed by a shining dream,
    Move through the incredible sphere of time.
    And I saw a man arise from the soil like a fabled giant
    And throw himself over a deathless destiny,
    Master of great armies, head of the republic,
    Bringing together into a dithyramb of recreative song
    The epic hopes of a people;
    At the same time Vulcan of sovereign fires,
    Where imperishable shields and swords were beaten out
    From spirits tempered in heaven....

Edgar Lee Masters

Adam Weirauch

    I was crushed between Altgeld and Armour.
    I lost many friends, much time and money
    Fighting for Altgeld whom Editor Whedon
    Denounced as the candidate of gamblers and anarchists.
    Then Armour started to ship dressed meat to Spoon River,
    Forcing me to shut down my slaughter-house
    And my butcher shop went all to pieces.
    The new forces of Altgeld and Armour caught me
    At the same time. I thought it due me, to recoup the money I lost
    And to make good the friends that left me,
    For the Governor to appoint me Canal Commissioner.
    Instead he appointed Whedon of the Spoon River Argus,
    So I ran for the legislature and was elected.
    I said to hell with principle and sold my vote
    On Charles T. Yerkes' street-car franchise.

Edgar Lee Masters

Knowlt Hoheimer

    I was the first fruits of the battle of Missionary Ridge.
    When I felt the bullet enter my heart
    I wished I had staid at home and gone to jail
    For stealing the hogs of Curl Trenary,
    Instead of running away and joining the army.
    Rather a thousand times the county jail
    Than to lie under this marble figure with wings,
    And this granite pedestal Bearing the words, "Pro Patria."
    What do they mean, anyway?

Edgar Lee Masters

Hiram Scates

    I tried to win the nomination
    For president of the County-board
    And I made speeches all over the County
    Denouncing Solomon Purple, my rival,
    As an enemy of the people,
    In league with the master-foes of man.
    Young idealists, broken warriors,
    Hobbling on one crutch of hope,
    Souls that stake their all on the truth,
    Losers of worlds at heaven's bidding,
    Flocked about me and followed my voice
    As the savior of the County.
    But Solomon won the nomination;
    And then I faced about,
    And rallied my followers to his standard,
    And made him victor, made him King
    Of the Golden Mountain with the door
    Which closed on my heels just as I entered,
    Flattered by Solomon's invitation,
    To be ...

Edgar Lee Masters

John Horace Burleson

    I won the prize essay at school
    Here in the village,
    And published a novel before I was twenty-five.
    I went to the city for themes and to enrich my art;
    There married the banker's daughter,
    And later became president of the bank -
    Always looking forward to some leisure
    To write an epic novel of the war.
    Meanwhile friend of the great, and lover of letters,
    And host to Matthew Arnold and to Emerson.
    An after dinner speaker, writing essays
    For local clubs. At last brought here -
    My boyhood home, you know -
    Not even a little tablet in Chicago
    To keep my name alive.
    How great it is to write the single line:
    "Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean, roll!"

Edgar Lee Masters