This blog is named as a tribute to Spoon River Anthology, by Edgar Lee Masters.
Why am I so enamored of this book?
First off, I love the book's structure. Spoon River Anthology tells the story of life in a small town during the late 1800s. The book is a collection of similar poems: Each is a dead person speaking from the grave, reflecting on his or her life and life in Spoon River. Just a few of the poems I really like are Mrs. Williams, Fiddler Jones, and Lucius Atherton.
Some of the characters even comment on each other and contradict each other's rationales and explanations. (The dueling married couple Roscoe Purkapile and Mrs. Purkapile are a great example.) Some of the poems are funny, some are sad, some are contemplative. They are all different.
But when you take them together, they form a cohesive whole, an almost different entity. I grew up in a small town, and the portrait Spoon River Anthology paints of small-town life strikes me as vividly accurate: The community spirit, the caring for neighbors, as well as the injustice and hypocrisy. In modern times, it seems like we revile hypocrisy as the worst sin, but Edgar Lee Masters sympathetically shows that hypocrisy is an inherent part of human nature.
Have you heard of the 2004 book, The Wisdom of Crowds, by James Surowiecki, a business writer for the New Yorker? The subtitle is, "Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations." It's about how groups can make the most intelligent decisions. Taken together, Spoon River residents reveal true wisdom. The whole is greater than the parts, and the parts are pretty good, too.
Look again at Mrs. Williams, and then read Lucinda Matlock. These women both have truths to impart. It's pretty profound.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
9 comments:
Roberto, I'm not sure if I would answer agree that lack of reading poetry is leading to a decline of civil society. I'm pretty open-minded about what people read. I don't care whether it's poetry, novels, comic books, how-to manuals, encyclopedias, political screeds, whatever. I think the act of reading is more important than what you read. Now, reading good writing is always better than reading bad writing. But I am not a purist when it comes to genre.
As for electronic media drowning out books, that's an interesting question that I hope to address on an ongoing basis in this blog. I think the Internet has done a lot for reading, and so many people are using the Internet to read, sending email and IMs, reading newspapers and magazine. So that's a positive trend.
I think NOISE in the general culture may be hurting reading. I love getting my car worked on, because it usually means I can get in an hour or two of solid reading. But sometimes I have to hunt around the dealership for a quiet corner. And don't get me started on how noisy gyms are these days.
What are three poems from this book that are closely thematically related.
Hello JB!
That is an interesting question. You could address this two ways.
The characters in each poem often make reference to other characters who have their own poems. So you could choose Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Pantier, and their son Reuben Pantier, and write about their relationships and different perspective. But if you write about Reuben Pantier, you have to write about his teacher Emily Sparks. So that would make four poems.
The other way you could go is to pick poems that deal with the same themes, like the inconsistent nature of legal justice (Judge Selah Lively, Tom Beatty, Butch Weldy) or women and their roles in society -- with an emphasis on sexuality (Mrs. Benjamin Pantier, Margaret Fuller Slack, Mrs. Williams). Those are just a few of the topics I would suggest.
I have loved this play since 1968, when my 12th grade Speech class performed it (in a small town in the mid-Western USA very close to the actual Spoon River). I have Produced/Directed/Acted/provided music for Spoon River 3 times in the past year as fundraisers for community outreach programs, and I can hardly wait to do it again. Once you get the charactors "inside" you, it's impossible to get them out (so be careful). There is so much wisdom in this poetry!
All of the monologues in the story were interesting. They all had their own problems, or were not sure whether to "leave" or not. Anonymous, very true that the characters "get to you." Beth Compton, the librarian, wanted to make a difference and show the small town what lay in outisde world through literature. Unfortunatly, right after she died they just sold the library that she built. It's sad really, i dont want to be forgotten that way when I die...
I got introduced to Spoon River Anthology in an acting class. I liked it so much that I've made a new online editon of
>Spoon River Anthology with comments, cross-links and other cool features. Check it out!
I have to write a paper for my english class including 15 epitaphs and 20 outside sources on a spoon river theme. some possible themes are corruption, death as the great equalizer and so on. I had thought about doing something with fakenesss of marriage or along those lines, any thoughts or help?
20 outside sources?! That sounds like a lot. I hope this is a college class.
I think marriage would be a great topic. Though I would call my paper something like "Master's Kaleidoscope of Marriage," that way you can talk about some of the poems that say good things about marriage, too. Here are some of the poems you should look at: Amanda Barker, Mrs. Pantier, Benjamin Pantier, Julia Miller, Mrs. Williams, Margaret Fuller Slack, Willard Fluke, Amos Sibley, Mrs. Sibley, Tom Merritt, Mrs. Merritt, Roscoe Purkapile, Mrs. Purkapile, Elsa Wertman. For a more positive outlook on marriage, try Lois Spears, Lucinda Matlock and William & Emily. That's just off the top of my head, there are other poems, too, I'm sure.
As for your critical sources, I can really only recommend one: the introduction to Spoon River Anthology: Annotated Edition, edited by John E. Hallwas. Please email me a copy of your paper when your done, I'd love to read it. Send it to spoonreader AT gmail DOT com.
haha yes it is a college class, the paper will surely be huge. And thats good that you cited John Hallwas because I did add him in my list of sources. I think im going to relate the theme to corruption of marriage and human nature as a sort of subtopic, thanks for the epitaph listing! It helps a lot.
Post a Comment