Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters

I read Spoon River Anthology because it was important in the book club in How To Read a Book. I was intrigued by the description, so I ordered it from the library where I just kept ignoring it in favor of books that were coming due. I have no more renewals on this one, so I finally dove in. 

This is a collection of poems Masters wrote, but the kicker is that each poem is an epitaph of a citizen of Spoon River told from the perspective of that person. It tells the story of a fictional small Midwestern town through these short, snappy verses. Published in 1915, this book was a super successful poetry collection and even today is often used in literature and theatre classes. The characters are sometimes based on real people Masters knew from his own Illinois small town and that courted some controversy back in the day. 

Do I love me a juicy story about a small town? Yes. Do I love how ruthless Masters was in describing the town? Yes. Did I love the cynicism of describing corruption and hypocrisy in a small town? Yes. Do I love a book in which a clever person who pays attention to detail can find all the connections? Yes. Did I love that there is a character in the book based on Theodore Dreiser who wrote An American Tragedy? Yes, I really did.  Did I love this book? I sure did. 

Some poems are better than others and the epilogue is ridiculous, but I would recommend this book if you're willing to put in the work. Also, it's sort of sexist, but also sort of feminist. SO CONFUSING. I love it. 

4/5 stars

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All page numbers come from this copy from the Internet Archive. 

Lines of note:

Then John Slack, the rich druggist, wooed me,

Luring me with the promise of leisure for my novel,

And I married him, giving birth to eight chidlren,

And had no time to write.

It was all over with me, anyway,

When I ran the needles in my hand

While washing the baby's things,

And died from lock-jaw, an ironical death.

Hear me, ambitious souls,

Sex is the curse of life! (page 48)

And I say to all, beware of ideals,

Beware of giving your love away

To any man alive. (page 70)

This oak tree near me is the favorite haunt

Of blue jays chattering, chattering all the day.

And why not? for my very dust is laughing

For thinking of the humorous thing called life. (page 86)

And I say to you that Life's a gambler

Head and shoulders above us all.

No mayor alive can close the house,

And if you lose, you can squeal as you will;

You'll not get back your money.

He makes the percentage hard to conquer;

He stacks the cards to catch your weakness

And not to meet your strength.

And he gives you seventy years to play:

For if you cannot win in seventy 

You cannot win at all. (page 155)

On spring days I tramped through the country

To get the feeling, which I sometimes lost,

That I was not a separate thing from the earth. (page 248)

(I resisted writing some of the entire poems down, but if you're interested, Mrs. Charles Bliss, Albert Shirding, and Washington McNeely all got (!) written down in my notes.)

Things I looked up:

flaneur (page 107) - a French term used by nineteenth-century French poet Charles Baudelaire to identify a person, typically male, who wonders around and observes society. Confusingly, Merriam - Webster has it listed as "an idle man-about-town," so it seems like the connotation might not always be as positive as perhaps Baudelaire intended.

termagant (page 118) - a harsh-tempered or overbearing woman

demirep (page 138) - woman whose chastity is considered doubtful

Baden-Baden (page 151) - a spa town in southwestern Germany’s Black Forest, near the border with France. Its thermal baths led to fame as a fashionable 19th-century resort.

With an inverted thumb, like Elagabalus? (page 239) - Elagabalus was Roman emperor from 218 to 222, while he was still a teenager. His short reign was notorious for religious controversy and alleged sexual debauchery. Maybe he was transgender (AFAB)? Something about his thumb (maybe thumb's up/thumb's down?). I don't know. I'm unwilling to wade through historians talking about this.

gonfalon (page 185) - a banner or pennant, especially one with streamers, hung from a crossbar

Hat mentions (why hats?):

old slouch hat (page 33)

fashionable hats (page 72)

Hats may make divorces - (page 72)

Her orders for new hats (page 276)

battered hat (page 279)

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Who's in on this? There's a blurb on the back of my copy that says "The single most widely read book of American poetry." - James Hurt, Illinois Authors. What's your take on this outrageous claim? What other American poetry collections do you think might be more read?