Spoon River Anthology

Synopsis

In <i>Spoon River Anthology</i>, the American poet Edgar Lee Masters (1869–1950) created a series of compelling free-verse monologues in which former citizens of a mythical Midwestern town speak touchingly from the grave of the thwarted hopes and dream of their lives.

First published in book form in 1915, the <i>Anthology</i> was the crowning achievement of Masters' career as a poet, and a work that would become a landmark of 20th-century American literature.

In these pages, no less than 214 individual voices are heard — some in no more than a dozen moving lines.

Alternately plaintive, anguished, enigmatic, angry, and contemptuous, the voices of Spoon River, although distinctively small-town Americans, evoke themes of love and hope, disappointment and despair that are universal in their resonance.

This American classic is reprinted here from the authoritative 1915 edition.