My father who owned the wagon-shop And grew rich shoeing horses Sent me to the University of Mont… I learned nothing and returned hom… Roaming the fields with Bert Kess…

Passer-by, To love is to find your own soul Through the soul of the beloved on… When the beloved one withdraws its… Then you have lost your soul.

I looked like Abraham Lincoln. I was one of you, Spoon River, in… But standing for the rights of pro… A regular church attendant, Sometimes appearing in your town m…

Not character, not fortitude, not… Were mine, the which the village t… In bearing with my wife, while pre… Doing the work God chose for me. I loathed her as a termagant, as a…

Out of me unworthy and unknown The vibrations of deathless music; ‘With malice toward none, with cha… Out of me the forgiveness of milli… And the beneficient face of a nati…

My parents thought that I would b… As great as Edison or greater: For as a boy I made balloons And wondrous kites and toys with c… And little engines with tracks to…

To this generation I would say: Memorize some bit of verse of trut… It may serve a turn in your life. My husband had nothing to do With the fall of the bank—he was o…

They laughed at me as “Prof. Moon… As a boy in Spoon River, born wit… Of knowing about the stars. They jeered when I spoke of the l… And the thrilling heat and cold,

He ran away and was gone for a yea… When he came home he told me the s… Of being kidnapped by pirates on… And kept in chains so he could not… I pretended to believe it, though…

I who kept the greenhouse, Lover of trees and flowers, Oft in life saw this umbrageous el… Measuring its generous branches wi… And listened to its rejoicing leav…

At four o’clock in late October I sat alone in the country school-… Back from the road 'mid stricken f… And an eddy of wind blew leaves on… And crooned in the flue of the can…

I had no objection at all To selling my household effects at… On the village square. It gave my beloved flock the chanc… To get something which had belonge…

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,…

I inherited forty acres from my F… And, by working my wife, my two so… From dawn to dusk, I acquired A thousand acres. But not content… Wishing to own two thousand acres,

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…