Rev. Lemuel Wiley

    I preached four thousand sermons,
    I conducted forty revivals,
    And baptized many converts.
    Yet no deed of mine
    Shines brighter in the memory of the world,
    And none is treasured more by me:
    Look how I saved the Blisses from divorce,
    And kept the children free from that disgrace,
    To grow up into moral men and women,
    Happy themselves, a credit to the village.

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

Alfred Moir

Edgar Lee Masters, Simple Poetry

Roscoe Purkapile

Edgar Lee Masters, Simple Poetry

Emily Sparks

Edgar Lee Masters, Simple Poetry

William H. Herndon

Edgar Lee Masters, Simple Poetry

English

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Mrs. Charles Bliss

    Reverend Wiley advised me not to divorce him
    For the sake of the children,
    And Judge Somers advised him the same.
    So we stuck to the end of the path.
    But two of the children thought he was right,
    And two of the children thought I was right.
    And the two who sided with him blamed me,
    And the two who sided with me blamed him,
    And they grieved for the one they sided with.
    And all were torn with the guilt of judging,
    And tortured in soul because they could not admire
    Equally him and me.
    Now every gardener knows that plants grown in cellars
    Or under stones are twisted and yellow and weak.
    And no mother would let her baby suck
    Diseased milk from her breast.
    Yet preachers and judges advise the raising...

Edgar Lee Masters

Lydia Humphrey

    Back and forth, back and forth, to and from the church,
    With my Bible under my arm
    'Till I was gray and old;
    Unwedded, alone in the world,
    Finding brothers and sisters in the congregation,
    And children in the church.
    I know they laughed and thought me queer.
    I knew of the eagle souls that flew high in the sunlight,
    Above the spire of the church, and laughed at the church,
    Disdaining me, not seeing me.
    But if the high air was sweet to them, sweet was the church to me.
    It was the vision, vision, vision of the poets
    Democratized!

Edgar Lee Masters

Ezra Bartlett

    A chaplain in the army,
    A chaplain in the prisons,
    An exhorter in Spoon River,
    Drunk with divinity, Spoon River -
    Yet bringing poor Eliza Johnson to shame,
    And myself to scorn and wretchedness.
    But why will you never see that love of women,
    And even love of wine,
    Are the stimulants by which the soul, hungering for divinity,
    Reaches the ecstatic vision
    And sees the celestial outposts?
    Only after many trials for strength,
    Only when all stimulants fail,
    Does the aspiring soul
    By its own sheer power
    Find the divine
    By resting upon itself.

Edgar Lee Masters

Elliott Hawkins

    I looked like Abraham Lincoln.
    I was one of you, Spoon River, in all fellowship,
    But standing for the rights of property and for order.
    A regular church attendant,
    Sometimes appearing in your town meetings to warn you
    Against the evils of discontent and envy
    And to denounce those who tried to destroy the Union,
    And to point to the peril of the Knights of Labor.
    My success and my example are inevitable influences
    In your young men and in generations to come,
    In spite of attacks of newspapers like the Clarion;
    A regular visitor at Springfield
    When the Legislature was in session
    To prevent raids upon the railroads
    And the men building up the state.
    Trusted by them and by you, Spoon River, equally
   ...

Edgar Lee Masters

Mrs. Meyers

    He protested all his life long
    The newspapers lied about him villainously;
    That he was not at fault for Minerva's fall,
    But only tried to help her.
    Poor soul so sunk in sin he could not see
    That even trying to help her, as he called it,
    He had broken the law human and divine.
    Passers by, an ancient admonition to you:
    If your ways would be ways of pleasantness,
    And all your pathways peace,
    Love God and keep his commandments.

Edgar Lee Masters

Mrs. George Reece

    To this generation I would say:
    Memorize some bit of verse of truth or beauty.
    It may serve a turn in your life.
    My husband had nothing to do
    With the fall of the bank - he was only cashier.
    The wreck was due to the president, Thomas Rhodes,
    And his vain, unscrupulous son.
    Yet my husband was sent to prison,
    And I was left with the children,
    To feed and clothe and school them.
    And I did it, and sent them forth
    Into the world all clean and strong,
    And all through the wisdom of Pope, the poet:
    "Act well your part, there all the honor lies."

Edgar Lee Masters