In the last spring I ever knew, In those last days, I sat in the forsaken orchard Where beyond fields of greenery sh… The hills at Miller’s Ford;

Dust of my dust, And dust with my dust, O, child who died as you entered t… Dead with my death! Not knowing breath, though you tri…

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…

Take note, passers-by, of the shar… Eaten in my head-stone by the wind… Almost as if an intangible Nemesi… Were marking scores against me, But to destroy, and not preserve,…

Who carved this shattered harp on… I died to you, no doubt. But how… Wired I and tightened and disenta… Making them sweet again—with tunin… Oh well! A harp leaps out of the…

When Reuben Pantier ran away and… I went to Springfield. There I m… Whose father just deceased left hi… He married me when drunk. My life… A year passed and one day they fou…

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…

A giant as we hoped, in truth, a d… A barrel of slop that shines on L… Which at first seemed a vessel wit… For thirsty lips. So down the swi… You went through sloven spirit, cr…

Vegetarian, non-resistant, free-th… Orator apt at the rhine-stone rhyt… Carnivorous, avenger, believer and… Continent, promiscuous, changeable… Proud, with the pride that makes s…

I was sixteen, and I had the most… And specks before my eyes, and ner… And I couldn’t remember the books… Like Frank Drummer who memorized… And my back was weak, and I worri…

If a man could bite the giant hand That catches and destroys him, As I was bitten by a rat While demonstrating my patent trap… In my hardware store that day.

In my Spanish cloak, And old slouch hat, And overshoes of felt, And Tyke, my faithful dog, And my knotted hickory cane,

I belonged to the church, And to the party of prohibition; And the villagers thought I died… In truth I had cirrhosis of the l… For every noon for thirty years,

They have Chiseled on my stone th… ‘His life was gentle, and the elem… That nature might stand up and say… This was a man.’ Those who knew me smile

Ye aspiring ones, listen to the st… Who lies here with no stone to mar… As a boy reckless and wanton, Wandering with gun in hand through… Near the mansion of Aaron Hatfiel…