When I first came to Spoon River I did not know whether what they t… Was true or false. They would bring me an epitaph And stand around the shop while I…

As to democracy, fellow citizens, Are you not prepared to admit That I, who inherited riches and… Was second to none in Spoon River In my devotion to the cause of Li…

Both for the country and for the m… And for a country as well as a man… ’Tis better to be feared than love… And if this country would rather p… With the friendship of every natio…

Ye young debaters over the doctrin… Of the soul’s immortality I who lie here was the village ath… Talkative, contentious, versed in… Of the infidels.

The earth keeps some vibration goi… There in your heart, and that is y… And if the people find you can fid… Why, fiddle you must, for all your… What do you see, a harvest of clov…

She took my strength by minutes, She took my life by hours, She drained me like a fevered moon That saps the spinning world. The days went by like shadows,

Not “a youth with hoary head and h… But an old man with a smooth skin And black hair! I had the face of a boy as long as… And for years a soul that was stif…

Do you remember, O Delphic Apoll… The sunset hour by the river, when… Cried, “There’s a ghost,” and I,… And the son of the banker derided… By the flags at the water’s edge,…

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…

They brought me ambrotypes Of the old pioneers to enlarge. And sometimes one sat for me— Some one who was in being When giant hands from the womb of…

Glorious daughter of time! Thou o… Thou of the virginal forehead—pall… Thou of the strong white hands wit… Of the blood that quickened the fa… Leave thou the path of the beasts.…

She loved me. Oh! how she loved m… I never had a chance to escape From the day she first saw me. But then after we were married I… She might prove her mortality and…

Tell me ye King-craft of to-day Where is Athens, who made men fre… Then sank into stupor by the way, Subdued by the Spartan tyranny? And Rome that staggered to death,…

There is the caw of a crow, And the hesitant song of a thrush. There is the tinkle of a cowbell f… And the voice of a plowman on Shi… The forest beyond the orchard is s…

With our hearts like drifting suns… As often before, the April fields… Silkened over with viewless gauze… Under the cliff, our trysting plac… Where the brook turns! Had we but…