Till the dawn of our wedding decennialFound me my seeming self again.We walked the forest together,By a path of soundless moss and turf.But I could not look in your eyes,And you could not look in my eyes,For such sorrow was ours — the beginning of gray in your hair,And I but a shell of myself.And…
For twenty years, committing the grammarAlmost by heart,I thought I’d take a trip to ParisTo give my culture a final polish.So I went to Peoria for a passport —(Thomas Rhodes was on the train that morning.)And there the clerk of the district CourtMade me swear to support and defendThe constitution — yes, even me —Who…
And the canning factory,Acting for Thomas Rhodes and the banking clique;My son the cashier of the bank,Wedded to Rhodes’ daughter,My week day spent in making money,My Sundays at church and in prayer.In everything a cog in the wheel of things-as-they-are:Of money, master and man, made whiteWith the paint of the Christian creed.And then:The bank collapsed….
I lavished my admiration upon you,You were to my mind the almost perfect man.You devoured my personality,And the idealism of my youth,And the strength of a high-souled fealty.And all my hopes for the world,And all my beliefs in Truth,Were smelted up in the blinding heatOf my devotion to you,And molded into your image.And then when…
Or gather hazel nuts among the thicketsOn Aaron Hatfield’s farm when the frosts begin?For many times with the laughing girls and boysPlayed I along the road and over the hillsWhen the sun was low and the air was cool,Stopping to club the walnut treeStanding leafless against a flaming west.Now, the smell of the autumn smoke,And…
Later they locked me up as insaneWhere I was beaten to death by a Catholic guard.My offense was this:I said God lied to Adam, and destined himto lead the life of a fool,Ignorant that there is evil in the world as well as good.And when Adam outwitted God by eating the appleAnd saw through the…
But when its sound was mingledWith the sound of the Methodist, the Christian,The Baptist and the Congregational,I could no longer distinguish it,Nor any one from the others, or either of them.And as many voices called to me in lifeMarvel not that I could not tellThe true from the false,Nor even, at last, the voice that…
Did you neglect the convention and caucus,And leave the burden on my handsOf guarding and saving the people’s cause? —Sometimes because you were ill;Or your grandmother was ill;Or you drank too much and fell asleep;Or else you said: ‘He is our leader,All will be well; he fights for us;We have nothing to do but follow.’But…
Studying law by candle lightUntil you became an attorney at law?And then suppose through your diligence,And regular church attendance,You became attorney for Thomas Rhodes,Collecting notes and mortgages,And representing all the widowsIn the Probate Court? And through it allThey jeered at your size, and laughed at your clothesAnd your polished boots? And then supposeYou became the…
So I wrote to the Chief of Police at Peoria:‘I am here in my girlhood home in Spoon River,Gradually wasting away.But come and take me, I killed the sonOf the merchant prince, in Madam Lou’s,And the papers that said he killed himselfIn his home while cleaning a hunting gun —Lied like the devil to hush…
