I began with Sir William Hamilto… Then studied Dugald Stewart; And then John Locke on the Under… And then Descartes, Fichte and S… Kant and then Schopenhauer—

I was crushed between Altgeld and… I lost many friends, much time and… Fighting for Altgeld whom Editor… Denounced as the candidate of gamb… Then Armour started to ship dress…

I could not run or play In boyhood. In manhood I could only sip the c… Not drink— For scarlet-fever left my heart di…

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…

A chaplain in the army, A chaplain in the prisons, An exhorter in Spoon River, Drunk with divinity, Spoon River— Yet bringing poor Eliza Johnson t…

I who kept the greenhouse, Lover of trees and flowers, Oft in life saw this umbrageous el… Measuring its generous branches wi… And listened to its rejoicing leav…

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…

At four o’clock in late October I sat alone in the country school-… Back from the road 'mid stricken f… And an eddy of wind blew leaves on… And crooned in the flue of the can…

The pine woods on the hill, And the farmhouse miles away, Showed clear as though behind a le… Under a sky of peacock blue! But a blanket of cloud by afternoo…

You praise my self-sacrifice, Spo… In rearing Irene and Mary, Orphans of my older sister! And you censure Irene and Mary For their contempt of me!

Once in a while a curious weed unk… Needing a name from my books; Once in a while a letter from Yeo… Out of the mussel-shells gathered… Sometimes a pearl with a glint lik…

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

Yes, here I lie close to a stunte… In a forgotten place near the fenc… Where the thickets from Siever’s… Have crept over, growing sparsely. And you, you are a leader in New…

Well, Emily Sparks, your prayers… Your love was not all in vain. I owe whatever I was in life To your hope that would not give m… To your love that saw me still as…

You observe the carven hand With the index finger pointing hea… That is the direction, no doubt. But how shall one follow it? It is well to abstain from murder…