Edgar Lee Masters (1868-1950)
Mrs. Benjamin Pantier
1I know that he told that I snared his soul
2With a snare which bled him to death.
3And all the men loved him,
4And most of the women pitied him.
5But suppose you are really a lady, and have delicate tastes,
6And loathe the smell of whiskey and onions.
7And the rhythm of Wordsworth's "Ode" runs in your ears,
8While he goes about from morning till night
9Repeating bits of that common thing;
10"Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud?"
11And then, suppose:
12You are a woman well endowed,
13And the only man with whom the law and morality
14Permit you to have the marital relation
15Is the very man that fills you with disgust
16Every time you think of it -- while you think of it
17Every time you see him?
18That's why I drove him away from home
19To live with his dog in a dingy room
20Back of his office.
Notes
1] Unidentified, but perhaps based in part on the poet's mother, Emma Masters, and his father, Hardin W. Masters.
7] William Wordsworth's "Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood ."
10] "Mortality," a poem by the Scottish poet, William Knox (1789-1825).
Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text: Edgar Lee Masters, Spoon River Anthology,
illustrated by Oliver Herford (London: T. Werner Laurie,
[1916]): 16. 8-NBI Masters New York Public Library
First publication date:
1915
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: 2003
Recent editing: 1:2003/6/2
Rhyme: unrhyming
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