Masters grew up in two towns in the Illinois Corn Belt, Lewistown and Petersburg, along the Spoon River. He was one of the first writers to portray the American small town as a place of terrible secrets, lies, and scandals. Today, August 23, is the birthday of the poet Edgar Lee Masters born in Garnett, Kansas (1869). Of the horse-races long ago at Clary’s Grove, Lo! he babbles of the fish-frys of long ago, Who played with life all his ninety years,ĭrinking, rioting, thinking neither of wife nor kin, They brought them dead sons from the war, Was brought to her little space by Ella and Kate and Mag–Īnd old Towny Kincaid and Sevigne Houghton, One after life in faraway London and Paris One of a broken pride, in a search for a heart’s desire, One at the hands of a brute in a brothel, The tender heart, the simple soul, the loud, the proud, the happy one?– Where are Ella, Kate, Mag, Lizzie, and Edith, One fell from a bridge toiling for children and wife–Īll, all are sleeping, sleeping, sleeping on the hill. The weak of will, the strong of arm, the clown, the boozer, the fighter?

Where are Elmer, Herman, Bert, Tom, and Charley, The opening poem in SPOON RIVER introduces the people and place, and like a good short story, a well designed narrative, begins where it all ends:

I can think of no greater book of American poetry reflecting the power and beauty of the narrative poem than Edgar Less Masters’s SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY. It may even be a very old fashioned way to write a poem about provincial life, though narrative poetry seems as natural as gossip, and often achieves greatness because of the story within the poem we all wish to hear, and some to write. The village, the town, the rural may be an old fashioned lifestyle to some, given the magnetism of our great cities, the scope and sameness of our suburbias, gated communities, concrete, steel, and neon landscapes peopled with strangers. This is a good day (August 23rd) to take another look at an American masterpiece celebrating small town life. (‘ Petit, the Poet,’ from Spoon River Anthology)

Edgar lee masters poems