Spoon River anthology

Edgar Lee Masters

Spoon river anthology

Presentation by Giorgia Fratusco

Spoon River Anthology is a collection of short poems writed by Edgar Lee Masters. The poems collectively narrate the epitaphs of the residents of Spoon River, a fictional small town. The first edition of Spoon River Anthology was published by The Macmillan Company in 1915 with a total of 213 poems. In 1916 Masters published a new edition of the book with 33 new poems.

Each of the poems is an autobiographical epitaph of a dead citizen that tell their story and their weaknesses without veils, letting emerge corruption, misery, greed, lust and many regrets. Masters by telling those stories with an original lyrical-satirical style, makes a criticism of the provincialism and puritanism of American society . Spoon River Anthology was a critical and commercial success.

Doc Hill- he was a doctor with an unhappy family life that dedicated all his love to the people he cured:

I went up and down the streetsHere and there by day and night, Through all hours of the night caring for the poor who were sick. Do you know why? My wife hated me, my son went to the dogs. And I turned to the people and poured out my love to them. Sweet it was to see the crowds about the lawns on the day of my funeral, And hear them murmur their love and sorrow. But oh, dear God, my soul trembled, scarcely able To hold to the railing of the new life When I saw Em Stanton behind the oak tree At the grave, Hiding herself, and her grief!

Trainor, the Druggist- He combines chemical elements sure of the result but cannot understand love : Only the chemist can tell, and not always the chemist, What will result from compounding Fluids or solids. And who can tell How men and women will interac On each other, or what children will result? There were Benjamin Pantier and his wife, Good in themselves, but evil toward each other; He oxygen, she hydrogen, Their son, a devastating fire. I Trainor, the druggist, a miser of chemicals, Killed while making an experiment, Lived unwedded The italian songwriter Fabrizio De André set this poem to music in the song called "un chimico" in the album "non al denaro, non all'amore, ne al cielo".

Amanda Barker, dead while giving birth: Henry got me with child, Knowing that I could not bring forth life Without losing my own. In my youth therefore I entered the portals of dust. Traveler, it is believed in the village where I lived That Henry loved me with a husband's love, But I proclaim from the dust That he slew me to gratify his hatred.

William and Emily- this is the epitaph of two lovers that have aged and died together: There is something about Death Like love itself! If with some one with whom you have known passion, And the glow of youthful love, You also, after years of life Together, feel the sinking of the fire, And thus fade away together, Gradually, faintly, delicately, As it were in each other’s arms, Passing from the familiar room – That is a power of unison between souls Like love itself!