The dead of a Midwestern town speak their own honest epitaphs from the hill cemetery. Masters's landmark of free-verse American realism.
Books mentioned in Spoon River Anthology (10)
East Lynne by Henry Wood: “But I tried to take it, my ambition fired When sixteen years of age, Seeing "East Lynne," played here in the village By Ralph Barrett, the coming Romantic actor, who enthralled my soul.”
Poems by John Milton: “Nor cared because the hammock fell In the dust with Milton's Poems.”
Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: “For those of you who could not see the virtue Of knowing Volney's "Ruins" as well as Butler's "Analogy" And "Faust" as well as "Evangeline," Were really the power in the village, And often you asked me "What is the use of knowing the evil in the world?"”
Evangeline by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: “For those of you who could not see the virtue Of knowing Volney's "Ruins" as well as Butler's "Analogy" And "Faust" as well as "Evangeline," Were really the power in the village, And often you asked me "What is the use of knowing the evil in the world?"”
The Ruins by Constantin-François de Volney: “For those of you who could not see the virtue Of knowing Volney's "Ruins" as well as Butler's "Analogy" And "Faust" as well as "Evangeline," Were really the power in the village, And often you asked me "What is the use of knowing the evil in the world?"”
The Analogy of Religion by Joseph Butler: “Of knowing Volney's "Ruins" as well as Butler's "Analogy" And "Faust" as well as "Evangeline,"”
Iliad by Homer: “I have written the Iliad and Hamlet; And I have explored your mysteries, And searched for you without ceasing”
Hamlet by William Shakespeare: “I have written the Iliad and Hamlet; And I have explored your mysteries, And searched for you without ceasing”
Tears, Idle Tears by Alfred Tennyson: “Then I said: "What is "divine despair" Alfred?" "Have you read 'Tears, Idle Tears'?"”
Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant by Ulysses S. Grant: “And stood on the corner talking politics, Or sat at home reading Grant's Memoirs;”
Books that mention Spoon River Anthology (1)
Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut: “Minton now recited a poem from Edgar Lee Masters' the Spoon River Anthology”