Better than granite, Spoon River, Is the memory-picture you keep of… Standing before the pioneer men an… There at Concord Church on Commu… Speaking in broken voice of the pe…

Not in that wasted garden Where bodies are drawn into grass That feeds no flocks, and into eve… That bear no fruit— There where along the shaded walks

If you in the village think that m… Who closed the saloons and stopped… And haled old Daisy Fraser before… In many a crusade to purge the peo… Why do you let the milliner’s daug…

You praise my self-sacrifice, Spo… In rearing Irene and Mary, Orphans of my older sister! And you censure Irene and Mary For their contempt of me!

You have become a forge of snow-wh… A crucible of molten steel, O Fra… Your sons are stars who cluster to… And fade in light for you, O glor… They pass through meteor changes w…

Almost the shell of a woman after… And almost a year to creep back in… Till the dawn of our wedding decen… Found me my seeming self again. We walked the forest together,

Together in this grave lie Benjam… And Nig, his dog, constant compan… Down the grey road, friends, child… Passing one by one out of life, le… With Nig for partner, bed fellow,…

Doc Meyers said I had satyriasis, And Doc Hill called it leucaemia— But I know what brought me here: I was sixty-four but strong as a m… Of thirty-five or forty.

I was only eight years old; And before I grew up and knew wha… I had no words for it, except That I was frightened and told my… And that my Father got a pistol

God! ask me not to record your won… I admit the stars and the suns And the countless worlds. But I have measured their distanc… And weighed them and discovered th…

I was not beloved of the villagers… But all because I spoke my mind, And met those who transgressed aga… With plain remonstrance, hiding no… Nor secret griefs nor grudges.

Whenever the Presbyterian bell Was rung by itself, I knew it as… But when its sound was mingled With the sound of the Methodist,… The Baptist and the Congregationa…

They called me the weakling, the s… For my brothers were strong and be… While I, the last child of parent… Inherited only their residue of po… But they, my brothers, were eaten…

You never marveled, dullards of S… When Chase Henry voted against th… To revenge himself for being shut… But none of you was keen enough To follow my steps, or trace me ho…

Have you seen walking through the… A man with downcast eyes and hagga… That is my husband who, by secret… never to be told, robbed me of my… Till at last, wrinkled and with ye…