Edgar Lee Masters (1868-1950)
Carl Hamblin
1The press of the Spoon River Clarion was wrecked,
2And I was tarred and feathered,
3For publishing this on the day the Anarchists were hanged in Chicago:
4"I saw a beautiful woman with bandaged eyes
5Standing on the steps of a marble temple.
6Great multitudes passed in front of her,
7Lifting their faces to her imploringly.
8In her left hand she held a sword.
9She was brandishing the sword,
10Sometimes striking a child, again a laborer,
11Again a slinking woman, again a lunatic.
12In her right hand she held a scale;
13Into the scale pieces of gold were tossed
14By those who dodged the strokes of the sword.
15A man in a black gown read from a manuscript:
16'She is no respecter of persons.'
17Then a youth wearing a red cap
18Leaped to her side and snatched away the bandage.
19And lo, the lashes had been eaten away
20From the oozy eye-lids;
21The eye-balls were seared with a milky mucus;
22The madness of a dying soul
23Was written on her face --
24But the multitude saw why she wore the bandage."
Notes
3] November 11, 1887, for the Haymarket Riot on May 4, 1886, when at a workingman's demonstration a bomb is thrown into the midst of the police, the police return fire, and some die.
4] Justice.
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]): 130-31. 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
