William Goode

    To all in the village I seemed, no doubt,
    To go this way and that way, aimlessly. .
    But here by the river you can see at twilight
    The soft - winged bats fly zig-zag here and there -
    They must fly so to catch their food.
    And if you have ever lost your way at night,
    In the deep wood near Miller's Ford,
    And dodged this way and now that,
    Wherever the light of the Milky Way shone through,
    Trying to find the path,
    You should understand I sought the way
    With earnest zeal, and all my wanderings
    Were wanderings in the quest.

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

The Town Marshal

Edgar Lee Masters, Simple Poetry

Black Eagle Returns To St. Joe

Edgar Lee Masters, Simple Poetry

Jacob Godbey

Edgar Lee Masters, Simple Poetry

Hortense Robbins

Edgar Lee Masters, Simple Poetry

English

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The Vision

    Of that dear vale where you and I have lain
    Scanning the mysteries of life and death
    I dreamed, though how impassable the space
    Of time between the present and the past!
    This was the vision that possessed my mind;
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    Had eased themselves in melody and peace.
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Edgar Lee Masters

Arlo Will

    Did you ever see an alligator
    Come up to the air from the mud,
    Staring blindly under the full glare of noon?
    Have you seen the stabled horses at night
    Tremble and start back at the sight of a lantern?
    Have you ever walked in darkness
    When an unknown door was open before you
    And you stood, it seemed, in the light of a thousand candles
    Of delicate wax?
    Have you walked with the wind in your ears
    And the sunlight about you
    And found it suddenly shine with an inner splendor?
    Out of the mud many times
    Before many doors of light
    Through many fields of splendor,
    Where around your steps a soundless glory scatters
    Like new - fallen snow,
    Will you go through earth, O strong of soul,
    And...

Edgar Lee Masters

James Garber

    Do you remember, passer-by, the path
    I wore across the lot where now stands the opera house
    Hasting with swift feet to work through many years?
    Take its meaning to heart:
    You too may walk, after the hills at Miller's Ford
    Seem no longer far away;
    Long after you see them near at hand,
    Beyond four miles of meadow;
    And after woman's love is silent
    Saying no more: "l will save you."
    And after the faces of friends and kindred
    Become as faded photographs, pitifully silent,
    Sad for the look which means:
    "We cannot help you."
    And after you no longer reproach mankind
    With being in league against your soul's uplifted hands -
    Themselves compelled at midnight and at noon
    To watch with steadfast e...

Edgar Lee Masters

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

Zilpha Marsh

    At four o'clock in late October
    I sat alone in the country school-house
    Back from the road, mid stricken fields,
    And an eddy of wind blew leaves on the pane,
    And crooned in the flue of the cannon-stove,
    With its open door blurring the shadows
    With the spectral glow of a dying fire.
    In an idle mood I was running the planchette -
    All at once my wrist grew limp,
    And my hand moved rapidly over the board,
    'Till the name of "Charles Guiteau" was spelled,
    Who threatened to materialize before me.
    I rose and fled from the room bare-headed
    Into the dusk, afraid of my gift.
    And after that the spirits swarmed -
    Chaucer, Caesar, Poe and Marlowe,
    Cleopatra and Mrs. Surratt -
    Wherever I went, with m...

Edgar Lee Masters

In Michigan

    You wrote:
    "Come over to Saugatuck
    And be with me on the warm sand,
    And under cool beeches and aromatic cedars."
    And just then no one could do a thing in the city
    For the lure of far places, and something that tugged
    At one's heart because of a June sky,
    And stretches of blue water,
    And a warm wind blowing from the south.
    What could I do but take a boat
    And go to meet you?

    And when to-day is not enough,
    But you must live to-morrow also;
    And when the present stands in the way
    Of something to come,
    And there is but one you would see,
    All the interval of waiting is a wall.
    And so it was I walked the landward deck
    With flapping coat and hat pulled down;
    And I sat o...

Edgar Lee Masters