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Edgar Lee Masters (1868-1950)

The Unknown


              1Ye aspiring ones, listen to the story of the unknown
              2Who lies here with no stone to mark the place.
              3As a boy reckless and wanton,
              4Wandering with gun in hand through the forest
              5Near the mansion of Aaron Hatfield,
              6I shot a hawk perched on the top
              7Of a dead tree.
              8He fell with guttural cry
              9At my feet, his wing broken.
            10Then I put him in a cage
            11Where he lived many days cawing angrily at me
            12When I offered him food.
            13Daily I search the realms of Hades
            14For the soul of the hawk,
            15That I may offer him the friendship
            16Of one whom life wounded and caged.

Notes

5] A farmer who lived near the poet's grandparents.

13] Hades: the classical underworld.

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]): 126. 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

Other poems by Edgar Lee Masters

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