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Study Guide Prepared by Michael
J. Cummings..©
2011
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Selected Poems and Comments
The Hill.
. . .Daisy Fraser. .
. .Serepta Mason.
. . .Shack Dye. . . .Mabel
Osborne. . . .The
Circuit Judge. . . .Dora
Williams
Andy
the Night-Watch. . . .Archibald
Higbie. . . .Hannah
Armstrong. . . .Margaret
Fuller Slack. . . .Deacon
Taylor. . . .Hon.
Henry Bennet
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Type
of Work and Publication Information
.......Spoon
River Anthology is a series of poems in free
verse. In most of the poems, a deceased native of the fictional town
of Spoon River delivers a monologue about his or her life or a specific
incident in his or her life. These monologues are, in effect, epitaphs.
.......Reedy's
Mirror, a St. Louis literary journal, published some of the poems in
1914. The first edition of Spoon River Anthology in book form appeared
in 1915.
Background
.......Dead
men tell no tales. So says an ancient proverb. But in
Spoon River Anthology
dead men—and women—do tell tales. Speaking from the grave, more than two
hundred forty deceased residents of a fictional Midwestern town, Spoon
River, each present short monologues about their lives. They reveal their
heartaches, disappointments, failures, and unfulfilled dreams. Sometimes
they tell of the moral trespasses of themselves or of others. Occasionally,
they tell of an incident that reveals the good or bad qualities of another
person.
.......Edgar
Lee Masters drew inspiration for his work from The Greek Anthology,
a collection of poems, epitaphs, inscriptions, and epitaphs from ancient
Greece.
Setting
.......The
setting for most of the poems is a cemetery in the fictional town of Spoon
River. The community is a composite of the real-life towns of Petersburg
and Lewistown, Illinois, where Edgar Lee Masters grew up. He based the
speakers of his poems on the people living in these small towns. Petersburg
is in Menard County in west-central Illinois. Lewistown is in Fulton County,
also in west-central Illinois.
.......The
cemetery, called "the hill" in the first poem of Spoon River Anthology,
is said to be the fictional counterpart of Oak Hill Cemetery in Lewistown.
However, not all the deceased residents of Spoon River speak from the local
cemetery. One of the Spoon River natives, Dora Williams, speaks from a
grave near Genoa, Italy.
The
Introductory Poem
.......In
the first poem—called "The Hill"—Masters introduces several characters
who later deliver monologues. The hill is the location of the town cemetery.
The Hill
Where are Elmer, Herman,
Bert, Tom, and Charley,
The weak of will, the strong
of arm, the clown, the boozer, the fighter?
All, all, are sleeping on
the hill.
One passed in a fever,
One was burned in a mine,
One was killed in a brawl,
One died in jail,
One fell from a bridge toiling
for children and wife—...............................................5
All, all are sleeping, sleeping,
sleeping on the hill.
Where are Ella, Kate, Mag,
Lizzie, and Edith,...............................................
The tender heart, the simple
soul, the loud, the proud, the happy one?—
All, all, are sleeping on
the hill.
One died in shameful child-birth,.........................................................................10
One of a thwarted love,
One
at the hands of a brute in a brothel,
One of a broken pride, in
a search for a heart's desire,
One after life in faraway
London and Paris
Was brought to her little
space by Ella and Kate and Mag—...................................15
All, all are sleeping, sleeping,
sleeping on the hill.
Where are Uncle Isaac and
Aunt Emily,...............................................
And old Towny Kincaid and
Sevigne Houghton,
And Major Walker who had
talked
With venerable men of the
revolution?—.................................................................20
All, all, are sleeping on
the hill.
They brought them dead sons
from the war,
And daughters whom life
had crushed,
And their children fatherless,
crying—
All, all are sleeping, sleeping,
sleeping on the hill...................................................25
Where is old Fiddler Jones
Who played with life all
his ninety years,...............................................
Braving the sleet with bared
breast,
Drinking, rioting, thinking
neither of wife nor kin,
Nor gold, nor love, nor
heaven?..............................................................................30
Lo! he babbles of the fish-frys
of long ago,
Of the horse-races long
ago at Clary's Grove,
Of what
Abe Lincoln said
One time at Springfield.
What
Lincoln Said (Line 33)
.......Before
embarking for Washington on February 11, 1861, for his inauguration as
president, Lincoln delivered a farewell address from his train to residents
of Springfield, Illinois. Here is a version of the speech, as written down
by Lincoln's secretary, John Nicolay:
My friends, no one,
not in my situation, can appreciate my feeling of sadness at this parting.
To this place and the kindness of these people, I owe everything. Here
I have lived a quarter of a century, and have passed from a young to an
old man. Here my children have been born, and one is buried. I now leave,
not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return, with a task before me
greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the assistance
of that Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that
assistance I cannot fail. Trusting in Him who can go with me, and remain
with you, and be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all
will yet be well. To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers
you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell.
Format:
Free Verse
.......Besides
introducing characters in Spoon River Anthology, "The Hill" introduces
the format, free verse. Free verse is poetry that ignores standard rules
of meter in favor of the rhythms of ordinary conversation.
In effect, free verse liberates poetry from conformity to rigid metrical
rules that dictate stress patterns and the number of syllables per line.
French poets originated free verse (or vers libre) in the 1880s,
although earlier poems of American Walt Whitman (1819-1892) and other writers
exhibited characteristics of free verse.
Conversational
Language
.......Except
for a poem entitled "The Spooniad," the language in Spoon River Anthology
is simple, conversational, and realistic, with plenty of local color and
regional references—like the reference in "The Hill" to "the horse races
long ago at Clary's Hill" (line 32). Many of the poems contain a figure
of speech called anaphora. Anaphora is the repetition of a word or group
of words at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses or sentences.
Note, for example, the repetition in "The Hill" of one at the beginning
of lines in the first and third stanzas, the repetition of and in
the fifth and sixth stanzas, and the repetition of nor (lines 29-30)
and of (lines 32-33) in the last stanza....
.
.
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Main Theme
.......The
theme of Spoon River Anthology is that residents of America's small
towns have provocative secrets to tell about themselves or others—secrets
which, for the most part, the residents wish to keep hidden during their
lifetimes. The residents of Spoon River decide to reveal their secrets
from the grave. Many of the secrets center on unseemly, shocking, disappointing,
hypocritical, or tragic developments; others focus on little incidents
that reveal a good or bad quality of themselves or someone else. Still
others present an overview of the corruption in the town, as in the following
monologue by the town prostitute.
Daisy
Fraser
Did you ever hear of Editor
Whedon
Giving to the public treasury
any of the money he received
For supporting candidates
for office?
Or for writing up the canning
factory
To get people to invest?......................................................5
Or for suppressing the facts
about the bank,
When it was rotten and ready
to break?
Did you ever hear of the
Circuit Judge
Helping anyone except the
“Q” railroad,
Or the bankers? Or did Rev.
Peet or Rev. Sibley....................10
Give any part of their salary,
earned by keeping still,
Or speaking out as the leaders
wished them to do,
To the building of the water
works?
But I—Daisy Fraser who always
passed
Along the streets through
rows of nods and smiles,................15
And coughs and words such
as “there she goes,”
Never was taken before Justice
Arnett
Without contributing ten
dollars and costs.
.......For
the most part, the secrets revealed by the deceased Spoon River natives
demonstrate that the image of small towns as idyllic utopias is a myth.
Other
Themes
.......The
individual poems each have their own themes, such as frustrated ambition,
loneliness, and racial prejudice.
Attitude
of the Speakers
.......With
a few exceptions, the attitude of most of the speakers in the poems is
somber, bitter, complaining, or regretful.
.
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Selected Poems and Comments
Serepta
Mason
My life’s blossom might have
bloomed on all sides
Save for a bitter wind which
stunted my petals
On the side of me which
you in the village could see.
From the dust I lift a voice
of protest:
My flowering side you never
saw!.............................................5
Ye living ones, ye are fools
indeed
Who do not know the ways
of the wind
And the unseen forces
That govern the processes
of life.
Comment
.......The
speaker uses a metaphor, comparing herself to a flower, to present a complaint
against the townspeople. Because they were ignorant of "the ways of the
wind" (line 7) and of "the unseen forces" (line 8) in life, they saw only
her ill-favored side—with its "stunted petals" (line 2)—not her beautiful
side. Serepta may be making excuses for not having the wherewithal to promote
her good side, or she may be lodging a legitimate complaint against the
"fools" of Spoon River. Whatever the case, she is a bitter woman.
.
Shack
Dye
The White men played all
sorts of jokes on me.
They took big fish off my
hook
And put little ones on,
while I was away
Getting a stringer, and
made me believe
I hadn’t seen aright the
fish I had caught...........................................5
When Burr Robbins circus
came to town
They got the ring master
to let a tame leopard
Into the ring, and made
me believe
I was whipping a wild beast
like Samson
When I, for an offer of
fifty dollars,.....................................................10
Dragged him out to his cage.
One time I entered my blacksmith
shop
And shook as I saw some
horse-shoes crawling
Across the floor, as if
alive—
Walter Simmons had put a
magnet...................................................15
Under the barrel of water.
Yet everyone of you, you
white men,
Was fooled about fish and
about leopards too,
And you didn’t know any
more than the horse-shoes did
What moved you about Spoon
River...................................................20
Comment
.......Shack
Dye, a black man, says his Spoon River neighbors played many practical
jokes on him. But he was aware of what motivated their shenanigans: racial
prejudice. Mr. Dye well knew their inmost feelings even though they would
not own up to them or perhaps were not fully aware of them. Consequently,
in his eyes, they were the fools. The last line seems to say that it was
Shack Dye's blacksmith business that kept Spoon River's horses—and commerce—moving.
He was the backbone of the town.
.
Mabel
Osborne
Your red blossoms amid green
leaves
Are drooping, beautiful
geranium!
But you do not ask for water.
You cannot speak! You do
not need to speak—
Everyone knows that you
are dying of thirst,.........................................5
Yet they do not bring water!
They pass on, saying:
“The geranium wants water.”
And I, who had happiness
to share
And longed to share your
happiness;....................................................10
I who loved you, Spoon River,
And craved your love,
Withered before your eyes,
Spoon River—
Thirsting, thirsting,
Voiceless from chasteness
of soul to ask you for love,............................15
You who knew and saw me
perish before you,
Like this geranium which
someone has planted over me,
And left to die.
Comment
.......Mabel
Osborne compares herself to a geranium thirsting for water. But no one
gives it the water necessary to nourish it. Osborne, of course, sought
love and attention while living in Spoon River. She received neither and
thus lived a lonely life. Now she is eternally lonely, lying in a grave
beneath the geranium that everyone ignores. Lines 2 and 3, as well as lines
9 and 10, contain anaphora. Lines 16 and 17 contain a simile: "You who
knew and saw me perish before you, like this geranium . . . ."
.
The
Circuit Judge
Take note, passers-by, of
the sharp erosions
Eaten in my head-stone by
the wind and rain—
Almost as if an intangible
Nemesis
or hatred
Were marking scores against
me,
But to destroy, and not
preserve, my memory......................................5
I in life was the Circuit
Judge, a maker of notches,
Deciding cases on the points
the lawyers scored,
Not on the right of the
matter.
O wind and rain, leave my
head-stone alone!
For worse than the anger
of the wronged,.............................................10
The curses of the poor,
Was to lie speechless, yet
with vision clear,
Seeing that even Hod Putt,
the murderer,
Hanged by my sentence,
Was innocent in soul compared
with me..............................................15
Comment
.......The
circuit judge admits that he was dishonest, making unjust decisions that
wronged many people. He now realizes that even Hod Putt, a murderer that
he sentenced to hang, was a better man than he was. Now his guilt and remorse
are eating away at him, like the wind and rain that erode his gravestone
and slowly erase the memory of him.
Notes
Circuit
Judge: Judge who travels from county to county in a particular
area to hear cases beyond the jurisdiction of local judges.
Nemesis: In Greek
mythology, the goddess of justice and vengeance. In modern usage, it often
refers to someone who causes another's defeat or downfall.
.
Rev.
Abner Peet
I had no objection at all
To selling my household
effects at auction
On the village square.
It gave my beloved flock
the chance
To get something which had
belonged to me.....................................5
For a memorial.
But that trunk which was
struck off
To Burchard, the grog-keeper!
Did you know it contained
the manuscripts
Of a lifetime of sermons?.................................................................10
And he burned them as waste
paper.
Comment
.......The
Rev. Mr. Peet assumes that the townsfolk value his memory, as lines 4 and
5 suggest. Apparently, in his will, he directed that his "household effects"
(line 2) be sold at auction. But Burchard the barkeeper thinks little of
his sermons. To prevent others from preserving copies of them, he buys
a trunk containing the copies, then burns them. Perhaps the good reverend
had too high an opinion of himself. Or perhaps he did not know when to
shut up. In another monologue, the deceased Spoon River resident Eugene
Carman says Mr. Peet's sermons lasted for more than an hour.
.
Dora
Williams
When Reuben Pantier ran away
and threw me
I went to Springfield. There
I met a lush,
Whose father just deceased
left him a fortune.
He married me when drunk.
My life was wretched.
A year passed and one day
they found him dead................................5
That made me rich. I moved
on to Chicago.
After a time met Tyler Rountree,
villain.
I moved on to New York.
A gray-haired magnate
Went mad about me—so another
fortune.
He died one night right
in my arms, you know.....................................10
(I saw his purple face for
years thereafter.)
There was almost a scandal.
I moved on,
This time to Paris. I was
now a woman,
Insidious, subtle, versed
in the world and rich.
My sweet apartment near
the Champs Élysées...................................15
Became a center for all
sorts of people,
Musicians, poets, dandies,
artists, nobles,
Where we spoke French and
German, Italian, English.
I wed Count Navigato, native
of Genoa.
We went to Rome. He poisoned
me, I think..........................................20
Now in the Campo Santo overlooking
The sea where young Columbus
dreamed new worlds,
See what they chiseled:
”Contessa Navigato
Implora eterna quiete.”
(Entreat eternal Rest)
Comment
.......The
speaker has a miserable life with the wealthy "lush" (line 2) in Springfield,
Illinois. So one day she murders him and inherits his fortune. She relocates
to Chicago, but has no luck with the villainous Tyler Rountree. Next, she
moves to New York. There, an older man—also wealthy—falls for her and marries
her. She murders him, too, and thus enlarges her fortune.
.......She
then goes to Paris and becomes a popular socialite, hosting artists, poets,
musicians, and other elegant people at her apartment near the most famous
street in the city, the Champs Élysées. After marrying an
Italian count named Navigato, she moves to Rome with him. But this time
he strikes first, poisoning her and apparently inheriting her fortune.
.......She
was a New World to him, just as America was a New World to Columbus, and
he plundered her. After her death, the Italians erected a memorial to her
on which were chiseled these words: Contessa Navigato Implora eterna
quiete. It presents a paradox, asking for eternal rest for a woman
who is restless.
Notes
Champs Élysées:
Famous boulevard in Paris. (Champs Élysées: French for Elysian
Fields)
Campo Santo: Cemetery
near Genoa, Italy. (Campo Santo: Italian for holy field)
Implora eterna quiete:
Entreat eternal rest; rest in peace.
.
Andy
the Night-Watch
In my Spanish cloak,
And old slouch hat,
And overshoes of felt,
And Tyke, my faithful dog,
And my knotted hickory cane,.........................................5
I slipped about with a bull’s-eye
lantern
From door to door on the
square,
As the midnight stars wheeled
round,
And the bell in the steeple
murmured
From the blowing of the
wind;...........................................10
And the weary steps of old
Doc Hill
Sounded like one who walks
in sleep,
And a far-off rooster crew.
And now another is watching
Spoon River
As others watched before
me...........................................15
And here we lie, Doc Hill
and I
Where none breaks through
and steals,
And no eye needs to guard.
Comment
.......The
speaker was a night watchman who, with his dog and lantern, made the rounds
in Spoon River to make sure everything was all right. Now, however, as
he lies at eternal rest under the ground, another watchman has taken his
place, just as he took the place of watchmen who came before him. No one
needs to watch over him—or Doc Hill, who lies with him in the Spoon River
cemetery—because no one wishes to confront death. The speaker represents
continuity and the passage of time, as well as the fearsome mystery of
death. Note the use of anaphora in the phrases and clauses beginning with
and.
.
Archibald
Higbie
I loathed you, Spoon River.
I tried to rise above you,
I was ashamed of you. I
despised you
As the place of my nativity.
And there in Rome, among
the artists,
Speaking Italian, speaking
French,.........................................5
I seemed to myself at times
to be free
Of every trace of my origin.
I seemed to be reaching
the heights of art
And to breathe the air that
the masters breathed,
And to see the world with
their eyes........................................10
But still they’d pass my
work and say:
“What are you driving at,
my friend?
Sometimes the face looks
like Apollo’s,
At others it has a trace
of Lincoln’s.”
There was no culture, you
know, in Spoon River,.......................15
And I burned with shame
and held my peace.
And what could I do, all
covered over
And weighted down with western
soil,
Except aspire, and pray
for another
Birth in the world, with
all of Spoon River...................................20
Rooted out of my soul?
Comment
.......Archibald
Higbie blames Spoon River for his shortcomings as an artist. The community
lacked culture and therefore held him back, he says. But many great American
artists (painters, sculptors, writers, etc.) grew up in small towns or
cities that similarly lacked the vibrant culture of a big city. Among them
were John James Audubon (1785-1851), a naturalist painter who grew up in
small towns in Haiti and France before migrating to the United States when
he was eighteen; Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975), a regionalist painter
who grew up in Neosho, Missouri; and Frederic Remington (1912-1956), an
abstract artist who grew up in Canton, New York.
.
Hannah
Armstrong
I wrote him a letter asking
him for old times’ sake
To discharge my sick boy
from the army;
But maybe he couldn’t read
it.
Then I went to town and
had James Garber,
Who wrote beautifully, write
him a letter;....................................5
But maybe that was lost
in the mails.
So I traveled all the way
to Washington.
I was more than an hour
finding the White House.
And when I found it they
turned me away,
Hiding their smiles. Then
I thought:............................................10
“Oh, well, he ain’t the
same as when I boarded him
And he and my husband worked
together
And all of us called him
Abe, there in Menard.”
As a last attempt I turned
to a guard and said:
“Please say it’s old Aunt
Hannah Armstrong...............................15
From Illinois, come to see
him about her sick boy
In the army.”
Well, just in a moment they
let me in!
And when he saw me he broke
in a laugh,
And dropped his business
as president,......................................20
And wrote in his own hand
Doug’s discharge,
Talking the while of the
early days,
And telling stories.
Comment
.......Mrs.
Hannah Armstrong (real name) was a friend of Abraham Lincoln in Illinois
before politics made him famous. At her request, Lincoln did in fact excuse
her son, William "Duff" Armstrong, from military service. This poem demonstrates
Mrs. Armstrong's dedication to the welfare of her son and Lincoln's closeness
to, and regard for, the common people.
.......Mrs.
Armstrong is buried in Oakland Cemetery in Petersburg, Illinois
.
Margaret
Fuller Slack
I would have been as great
as George Eliot
But for an untoward fate.
For look at the photograph
of me made by Penniwit,
Chin resting on hand, and
deep-set eyes—
Gray, too, and far-searching..........................................5
But there was the old, old
problem:
Should it be celibacy, matrimony
or unchastity?
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 children,...............10
And had no time to write.
It was all over with me,
anyway,
When I ran the needle in
my hand
While washing the baby’s
things,
And died from lock-jaw,
an ironical death.........................15
Hear me, ambitious souls,
Sex is the curse of life!
Comment
.......Margaret
blames her marriage and the task of rearing eight children for failing
to become a famous writer of great literary works. However, other women
with large families still managed to succeed as writers. For example, Kate
Chopin (1851-1904) began writing as a widow with six children. Shirley
Jackson had four children but managed to gain fame for her mastery of Gothic
horror in such novels as "The Haunting of Hill House" and such short stories
as "The Lottery."
Notes
George Eliot: Pen
name of Mary Ann Evans (1819-1880), the English author of such major novels
as Middlemarch, Silas Marner, The Mill on the Floss,
and Adam Bede.
Lockjaw: Tetanus,
a disease that causes muscle spasms, stiffness of the jaw, and breathing
difficulty. It can be fatal.
.
Deacon
Taylor
I belonged to the church,
And to the party
of prohibition;
And the villagers thought
I died of eating watermelon.
In truth I had cirrhosis
of the liver,
For every noon for thirty
years,..........................................5
I slipped behind the prescription
partition
In Trainor’s drug store
And poured a generous drink
From the bottle marked
”Spiritus
frumenti.”............................................................10
Comment
.......Deacon
Taylor is a hypocrite. As a prohibitionist, he gave the public the impression
that he was a teetotaler. But he sneaked whiskey at the local pharmacy
every day.
Notes
party of prohibition:
Political party seeking to outlaw the sale and consumption of alcoholic
beverages.
Spiritus frumenti:
Whiskey. (Spiritus frumenti: Latin, spirit of the grain.)
.
Hon.
Henry Bennet
It never came into my mind
Until I was ready to die
That Jenny had loved me
to death, with malice of heart.
For I was seventy, she was
thirty-five,
And I wore myself to a shadow
trying to husband
Jenny, rosy Jenny full of
the ardor of life.
For all my wisdom and grace
of mind
Gave her no delight at all,
in very truth,
But ever and anon she spoke
of the giant strength
Of Willard Shafer, and of
his wonderful feat
Of lifting a traction engine
out of the ditch
One time at Georgie Kirby’s.
So Jenny inherited my fortune
and married Willard—
That mount of brawn! That
clownish soul!
Comment
.......Bennet
apparently thought that Jenny was as much enthralled with him as he was
with her. Perhaps he thought his "wisdom and grace of mind" (line 7) attracted
her. But this same wisdom—if he really had any—should have told him that
Jenny married him only for his money. Her main concern was to send him
to his grave. One wonders whether he tried to perform a feat of strength,
like Willard Shafer, and dropped dead.
.
Figures
of Speech
.......Following
are examples of figures of speech in Spoon River Anthology. For
definitions of figures of speech, see Literary
Terms.
Alliteration
my
memory
("Archibald Higbie," line 5)
For worse
than the anger of the wronged "The
Circuit Judge," line 10)
I was
whipping
a wild beast ("Shack Dye," line 9)
And I, who
had
happiness
to share ("Mabel Osborne," line 9)
party
of prohibition ("Deacon Taylor," line
2)
prescription
partition
(Taylor) (Note that -ti has the sound of sh)
Apostrophe
Your red blossoms
amid green leaves
Are drooping, beautiful
geranium! ("Mabel Osborne," lines 1-2)
Osborne address the geranium.
O wind and rain, leave my
head-stone alone! "The Circuit Judge," line 9)
The judge addresses the
wind and the rain.
Anaphora
One
passed in a fever,
One
was burned in a mine,
One
was killed in a brawl,
One
died in jail,
One
fell from a bridge toiling for children and wife—("The Hill," lines 4-8)
Ye
living ones, ye are fools indeed ("Serepta
Mason," line 6)
And
old slouch hat,
And
overshoes of felt,
And
Tyke, my faithful dog,
And
my knotted hickory cane ("Andy the Night-Watch," lines 2-5)
Hyperbole
And I wore myself
to a shadow ("Hon. Henry Bennet," line 5)
Irony
It never came into
my mind
Until I was ready to die
That Jenny had
loved me to death, with malice of heart. ("Hon. Henry Bennet,"
lines 1-3)
Metaphor
My life’s blossom
might have bloomed on all sides
Save for a bitter wind which
stunted my petals ("Serepta Mason," lines 1-2)
The speaker compares
herself to a flower.
Simile
You who knew and
saw me perish before you,
Like this geranium which
someone has planted over me ("Mabel Osborne," lines 16-17)
Comparison of the speaker's
perishing to that of the geranium
Study
Questions and Writing Topics
1...Write
your own poem about a person in your town. Focus on an admirable or despicable
characteristic of the person. The tone and verse format are up to you.
2...List
additional examples of alliteration besides those mentioned above.
3...Write
an essay that defines the term free verse.
4.
What an essay analyzing one of the poems in Spoon River Anthology.
Do not choose a poem on this page.
5.
Pretend that you are a professional actor. Then, before your class, recite
one of the poems in Spoon River Anthology. Afterward, answer your
classmates' questions about the meaning of the poem.
....
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