Spoon River Anthology

By Edgar Lee Masters.

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To
My wife

For permission to reprint the Spoon River Anthology in book form, I wish to thank William Marion Reedy, the editor of Reedy’s Mirror, where it appeared from week to week, beginning with May 29, 1914; and to express my gratitude to him for the sympathetic interest which he showed in the work from the beginning.

Spoon River Anthology

The Hill

Where are Elmer, Herman, Bert, Tom and Charley,
The weak of will, the strong of arm, the clown, the boozer, the fighter?
All, all are sleeping on the hill.

One passed in a fever,
One was burned in a mine,
One was killed in a brawl,
One died in a jail,
One fell from a bridge toiling for children and wife⁠—
All, all are sleeping, sleeping, sleeping on the hill.

Where are Ella, Kate, Mag, Lizzie and Edith,
The tender heart, the simple soul, the loud, the proud, the happy one?⁠—
All, all are sleeping on the hill.

One died in shameful child-birth,
One of a thwarted love,
One at the hands of a brute in a brothel,
One of a broken pride, in the search for heart’s desire;
One after life in far-away London and Paris
Was brought to her little space by Ella and Kate and Mag⁠—
All, all are sleeping, sleeping, sleeping on the hill.

Where are Uncle Isaac