It matters not what place he drew At first life’s mortal breath, Some say it was in Bethlehem, And some in Nazareth. But shame and sorrow were his lot

‘Get children,’ says Commodus. Wh… The portals of the earth? Pre-nat… If you had entered here the god of… Had slaughtered you to crown ambit…

To all in the village I seemed, n… To go this way and that way, aimle… But here by the river you can see… The soft-winged bats fly zig-zag h… They must fly so to catch their fo…

Not character, not fortitude, not… Were mine, the which the village t… In bearing with my wife, while pre… Doing the work God chose for me. I loathed her as a termagant, as a…

The bank broke and I lost my savi… I was sick of the tiresome game in… And I made up my mind to run away And leave my place in life and my… But just as the midnight train pul…

It is true, fellow citizens, That my old docket lying there for… On a shelf above my head and over The seat of justice, I say it is… That docket had an iron rim

The press of the Spoon River Cla… And I was tarred and feathered, For publishing this on the day the… “I saw a beautiful woman with band… Standing on the steps of a marble…

There by the window in the old hou… Perched on the bluff, overlooking… My days of labor closed, sitting o… Day by day did I look in my memor… As one who gazes in an enchantress…

Back and forth, back and forth, to… With my Bible under my arm Till I was gray and old; Unwedded, alone in the world, Finding brothers and sisters in th…

My father who owned the wagon-shop And grew rich shoeing horses Sent me to the University of Mont… I learned nothing and returned hom… Roaming the fields with Bert Kess…

Tell me, was Altgeld elected Gove… For when the returns began to come… And Cleveland was sweeping the Ea… It was too much for you, poor old… Who had striven for democracy

I am Minerva, the village poetess… Hooted at, jeered at by the Yahoo… For my heavy body, cock-eye, and r… And all the more when “Butch” Wel… Captured me after a brutal hunt.

Take note, passers-by, of the shar… Eaten in my head-stone by the wind… Almost as if an intangible Nemesi… Were marking scores against me, But to destroy, and not preserve,…

They called me the weakling, the s… For my brothers were strong and be… While I, the last child of parent… Inherited only their residue of po… But they, my brothers, were eaten…

When I first came to Spoon River I did not know whether what they t… Was true or false. They would bring me an epitaph And stand around the shop while I…