Poetry Codex

American

Edgar Lee Masters

1868–1950

Edgar Lee Masters (1868–1950) was an American lawyer and writer, born in Garnett, Kansas, and raised in Petersburg and Lewistown, Illinois. He practised law in Chicago for three decades, partly as law partner of Clarence Darrow, and wrote poetry, plays, novels and biography alongside his legal career.

Spoon River Anthology, first published in 1915 and expanded in 1916 with The Spooniad and the Epilogue, is a sequence of free-verse epitaphs spoken by the dead of an imagined Midwestern town, drawing on the Illinois towns of his youth. It was an immediate sensation and remains his most famous work; the later volumes never matched its success.

Poems (481)

  1. The Hill
  2. Hod Putt
  3. Ollie McGee
  4. Fletcher McGee
  5. Robert Fulton Tanner
  6. Cassius Hueffer
  7. Serepta Mason
  8. Amanda Barker
  9. Constance Hately
  10. Chase Henry
  11. Harry Carey Goodhue
  12. Judge Somers
  13. Kinsey Keene
  14. Benjamin Pantier
  15. Mrs. Benjamin Pantier
  16. Reuben Pantier
  17. Emily Sparks
  18. Trainor, the Druggist
  19. Daisy Fraser
  20. Benjamin Fraser
  21. Minerva Jones
  22. “Indignation” Jones
  23. “Butch” Weldy
  24. Doctor Meyers
  25. Mrs. Meyers
  26. Knowlt Hoheimer
  27. Lydia Puckett
  28. Frank Drummer
  29. Hare Drummer
  30. Conrad Siever
  31. Doc Hill
  32. Andy The Night-Watch
  33. Sarah Brown
  34. Percy Bysshe Shelley
  35. Flossie Cabanis
  36. Julia Miller
  37. Johnnie Sayre
  38. Charlie French
  39. Zenas Witt
  40. Theodore the Poet
  41. The Town Marshal
  42. Jack McGuire
  43. Jacob Goodpasture
  44. Dorcas Gustine
  45. Nicholas Bindle
  46. Harold Arnett
  47. Margaret Fuller Slack
  48. George Trimble
  49. Dr. Siegfried Iseman
  50. “Ace” Shaw
  51. Lois Spears
  52. Justice Arnett
  53. Willard Fluke
  54. Aner Clute
  55. Lucius Atherton
  56. Homer Clapp
  57. Deacon Taylor
  58. Sam Hookey
  59. Cooney Potter
  60. Fiddler Jones
  61. Nellie Clark
  62. Louise Smith
  63. Herbert Marshall
  64. George Gray
  65. Hon. Henry Bennett
  66. Griffy the Cooper
  67. Sersmith the Dentist
  68. A. D. Blood
  69. Robert Southey Burke
  70. Dora Williams
  71. Mrs. Williams
  72. William and Emily
  73. The Circuit Judge
  74. Blind Jack
  75. John Horace Burleson
  76. Nancy Knapp
  77. Barry Holden
  78. State’s Attorney Fallas
  79. Wendell P. Bloyd
  80. Francis Turner
  81. Franklin Jones
  82. John M. Church
  83. Russian Sonia
  84. Isa Nutter
  85. Barney Hainsfeather
  86. Petit, the Poet
  87. Pauline Barrett
  88. Mrs. Charles Bliss
  89. Mrs. George Reece
  90. Rev. Lemuel Wiley
  91. Thomas Ross, Jr.
  92. Rev. Abner Peet
  93. Jefferson Howard
  94. Judge Selah Lively
  95. Albert Schirding
  96. Jonas Keene
  97. Eugenia Todd
  98. Yee Bow
  99. Washington McNeely
  100. Paul McNeely
  101. Mary McNeely
  102. Daniel M’Cumber
  103. Georgine Sand Miner
  104. Thomas Rhodes
  105. Ida Chicken
  106. Penniwit, the Artist
  107. Jim Brown
  108. Robert Davidson
  109. Elsa Wertman
  110. Hamilton Greene
  111. Ernest Hyde
  112. Roger Heston
  113. Amos Sibley
  114. Mrs. Sibley
  115. Adam Weirauch
  116. Ezra Bartlett
  117. Amelia Garrick
  118. John Hancock Otis
  119. Anthony Findlay
  120. John Cabanis
  121. The Unknown
  122. Alexander Throckmorton
  123. Jonathan Swift Somers (Author of the Spooniad)
  124. Widow McFarlane
  125. Carl Hamblin
  126. Editor Whedon
  127. Eugene Carman
  128. Clarence Fawcett
  129. W. Lloyd Garrison Standard
  130. Professor Newcomer
  131. Ralph Rhodes
  132. Mickey M’Grew
  133. Rosie Roberts
  134. Oscar Hummel
  135. Josiah Tompkins
  136. Roscoe Purkapile
  137. Mrs. Purkapile
  138. Mrs. Kessler
  139. Harmon Whitney
  140. Bert Kessler
  141. Lambert Hutchins
  142. Lillian Stewart
  143. Hortense Robbins
  144. Batterton Dobyns
  145. Jacob Godbey
  146. Walter Simmons
  147. Tom Beatty
  148. Roy Butler
  149. Searcy Foote
  150. Edmund Pollard
  151. Thomas Trevelyan
  152. Percival Sharp
  153. Hiram Scates
  154. Peleg Poague
  155. Jeduthan Hawley
  156. Abel Melveny
  157. Oaks Tutt
  158. Elliott Hawkins
  159. Voltaire Johnson
  160. English Thornton
  161. Enoch Dunlap
  162. Ida Frickey
  163. Seth Compton
  164. Felix Schmidt
  165. Schrœder The Fisherman
  166. Richard Bone
  167. Silas Dement
  168. Dillard Sissman
  169. Jonathan Houghton
  170. E. C. Culbertson
  171. Shack Dye
  172. Hildrup Tubbs
  173. Henry Tripp
  174. Granville Calhoun
  175. Henry C. Calhoun
  176. Alfred Moir
  177. Perry Zoll
  178. Dippold the Optician
  179. Magrady Graham
  180. Archibald Higbie
  181. Tom Merritt
  182. Mrs. Merritt
  183. Elmer Karr
  184. Elizabeth Childers
  185. Edith Conant
  186. Charles Webster
  187. Father Malloy
  188. Ami Green
  189. Calvin Campbell
  190. Henry Layton
  191. Harlan Sewall
  192. Ippolit Konovaloff
  193. Henry Phipps
  194. Harry Wilmans
  195. John Wasson
  196. Many Soldiers
  197. Godwin James
  198. Lyman King
  199. Caroline Branson
  200. Anne Rutledge
  201. Hamlet Micure
  202. Mabel Osborne
  203. William H. Herndon
  204. Rebecca Wasson
  205. Rutherford McDowell
  206. Hannah Armstrong
  207. Lucinda Matlock
  208. Davis Matlock
  209. Herman Altman
  210. Jennie M’Grew
  211. Columbus Cheney
  212. Wallace Ferguson
  213. Marie Bateson
  214. Tennessee Claflin Shope
  215. Plymouth Rock Joe
  216. Imanuel Ehrenhardt
  217. Samuel Gardner
  218. Dow Kritt
  219. William Jones
  220. William Goode
  221. J. Milton Miles
  222. Faith Matheny
  223. Scholfield Hurley
  224. Willie Metcalf
  225. Willie Pennington
  226. The Village Atheist
  227. John Ballard
  228. Julian Scott
  229. Alfonso Churchill
  230. Zilpha Marsh
  231. James Garber
  232. Lydia Humphrey
  233. Le Roy Goldman
  234. Gustav Richter
  235. Arlo Will
  236. Captain Orlando Killion
  237. Jeremy Carlisle
  238. Joseph Dixon
  239. Judson Stoddard
  240. Russell Kincaid
  241. Aaron Hatfield
  242. Isaiah Beethoven
  243. Elijah Browning
  244. Webster Ford
  245. The Spooniad
  246. Epilogue
  247. Silence
  248. St. Francis and Lady Clare
  249. The Cocked Hat
  250. The Vision
  251. So We Grew Together
  252. Rain in My Heart
  253. The Loop
  254. When Under the Icy Eaves
  255. In the Car
  256. Simon Surnamed Peter
  257. All Life in a Life
  258. What You Will
  259. The City
  260. The Idiot
  261. Helen of Troy
  262. O Glorious France
  263. For a Dance
  264. When Life Is Real
  265. The Question
  266. The Answer
  267. The Sign
  268. William Marion Reedy
  269. A Study
  270. Portrait of a Woman
  271. In the Cage
  272. Saving a Woman: One Phase
  273. Love Is a Madness
  274. On a Bust
  275. Arabel
  276. Jim and Arabel's Sister
  277. The Sorrow of Dead Faces
  278. The Cry
  279. The Helping Hand
  280. The Door
  281. Supplication
  282. The Conversation
  283. Terminus
  284. Madeline
  285. Marcia
  286. The Altar
  287. Soul's Desire
  288. Ballad of Launcelot and Elaine
  289. The Death of Launcelot
  290. In Michigan
  291. The Star
  292. Fort Dearborn
  293. Capt. John Whistler
  294. Emily Brosseau: In Church
  295. The Ouija Board
  296. Hanging the Picture
  297. Lincoln and Douglas Debates
  298. Autochthon
  299. Grant and Logan and Our Tears
  300. The Municipal Pier
  301. Gobineau to Tree
  302. Old Piery
  303. The Typical American?
  304. Come, Republic
  305. Past and Present
  306. Robert G. Ingersoll
  307. At Havana
  308. The Mourner’S Bench
  309. The Bay Window
  310. Man of Our Street
  311. Achilles Deatheridge
  312. Slip Shoe Lovey
  313. The Archangels
  314. Song of Change
  315. Memorabilia
  316. To a Spirochæta
  317. Cato Braden
  318. Winston Prairie
  319. Will Boyden Lectures
  320. The Desplaines Forest
  321. The Garden
  322. The Tavern
  323. O Saepe Mecum
  324. Malachy Degan
  325. My Dog Ponto
  326. The Gospel of Mark
  327. Marsyas
  328. Worlds Back of Worlds
  329. The Princess’ Song
  330. The Furies
  331. Apollo at Pheræ
  332. Steam Shovel Cut
  333. The Houses
  334. The Church and the Hotel
  335. Susie
  336. Having His Way
  337. The Asp
  338. The Family
  339. The Subway
  340. The Radical’S Message
  341. Bombyx
  342. The Apology of Demetrius
  343. A Play in Four Acts
  344. Theodore Dreiser
  345. John Cowper Powys
  346. New Year’S Day
  347. Playing Blind
  348. I Shall Never See You Again
  349. Elizabeth to Monsieur D----
  350. Monsieur D---- to the Psychoanalyst
  351. The Last Confession
  352. In the Loggia
  353. Be With Me Through the Spring
  354. Desolate Scythia
  355. The Search
  356. Toward the Gulf
  357. The Lake Boats
  358. Cities of the Plain
  359. Excluded Middle
  360. Samuel Butler, et al
  361. Johnny Appleseed
  362. The Loom
  363. Dialogue at Perko's
  364. Sir Galahad
  365. St. Deseret
  366. Heaven Is but the Hour
  367. Victor Rafolski on Art
  368. The Landscape
  369. To-Morrow Is My Birthday
  370. Sweet Clover
  371. Something Beyond the Hill
  372. Front the Ages with a Smile
  373. Poor Pierrot
  374. Mirage of the Desert
  375. Dahlias
  376. The Grand River Marshes
  377. Delilah
  378. The World-Saver
  379. Recessional
  380. The Awakening
  381. In the Garden at the Dawn Hour
  382. France
  383. Bertrand and Gourgaud Talk Over Old Times
  384. Draw the Sword, O Republic
  385. Dear Old Dick
  386. The Room of Mirrors
  387. The Letter
  388. Canticle of the Race
  389. Black Eagle Returns to St. Joe
  390. My Light with Yours
  391. The Blind
  392. "I Pay My Debt for Lafayette and Rochambeau"
  393. Christmas at Indian Point
  394. Widow La Rue
  395. Dr. Scudder's Clinical Lecture
  396. Friar Yves
  397. The Eighth Crusade
  398. The Bishop's Dream of the Holy Sepulchre
  399. Neanderthal
  400. The End of the Search
  401. Botanical Gardens
  402. Starved Rock
  403. Hymn to the Dead
  404. Creation
  405. The World's Desire
  406. Tyrannosaurus: Or Burning Letters
  407. Lord Byron to Doctor Polidori
  408. The Folding Mirror
  409. A Woman of Forty
  410. Wild Birds
  411. A Lady
  412. The Negro Ward
  413. William Shakspeare
  414. For a Play
  415. Chicago
  416. The Wedding Feast
  417. By the Waters of Babylon
  418. The Dream of Tasso
  419. The Christian Statesman
  420. The Lament of Sophonia
  421. At Decapolis
  422. Winged Victory
  423. Oh You Sabbatarians!
  424. Pallas Athene
  425. At Sagamore Hill
  426. To Robert Nichols
  427. Bonnybell: The Butterfly
  428. Hymn to Agni
  429. Epitaph for Us
  430. Botticelli to Simonetta
  431. Flower in the Garden
  432. Inexorable Deities
  433. Arielle
  434. Sounds Out of Sorrow
  435. Mournin' for Religion
  436. Thyamis
  437. I Shall Go Down into This Land
  438. Spring Lake
  439. The Barber of Sepo
  440. They'd Never Know Me Now
  441. Nel Mezzo del Cammin
  442. The Oak Tree
  443. The House on the Hill
  444. Washington Hospital
  445. Neither Faith Nor Beauty Can Remain
  446. Brutus and Antony
  447. At the Mermaid Tavern
  448. A Man Child is Born
  449. Richard Booth to His Son, Junius Booth
  450. Squire Bowling Green
  451. John Wilkes Booth at the Farm
  452. Junius Brutus Booth
  453. A Certain Poet on the Debates
  454. Winter Garden Theatre
  455. The Sparrow Hawk in the Rain
  456. The Burial of Boston Corbett
  457. Business Reverses
  458. The Fig Tree
  459. Tribute Money
  460. The Great Merger
  461. The Single Standard
  462. First Entrants
  463. John in Prison
  464. Ananias and Sapphira
  465. The Two Malefactors
  466. Nebuchadnezzar or Eating Grass
  467. Hip Lung on Yuan Chang
  468. Ulysses
  469. The Party
  470. Celsus at Hadrian’s Villa
  471. Invocation to the Gods
  472. Pentheus in These States
  473. Comparative Criminals
  474. The Great Race Passes
  475. Demos the Despot
  476. A Republic
  477. The Inn
  478. Monody on the Death of William Marion Reedy
  479. God and My Country
  480. The Dunes of Indiana
  481. Nature

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