Spoonriver Anthology - Edgar Lee Masters

Spoonriver Anthology - Edgar Lee Masters

Serepta Mason

This poem talks about a woman who was forced to renounce her ideas by the people of the village. In this poem the author presents the relationship between Serepta, a sensitive and free woman with an artistic personality and the conformist, over-devout people of the village.

Serepta criticizes the people of the villane and says that they are blind because they couldn't appreciate her personalità or know the unseen forces that govern the process of life.

In this poem there aren't rhymes, there's a big metaphor of Serepta's life, which is compared to a flower and of the society, which is compared to the bitter wind.

Minerva Jones

In this poetry there aren't rhymes. It's composed by 12 verses, but the strophe is only one. there is an enjambement between the fourth ans fifth line.

The poetess narrates her disperate condition; with this poetry she wants to express her stolte of mind. She feels so alone that she dispatches a disperate request trough the poem.

This poetess is jeered for her body, sut she isn't appreciates for her intelligence or for her charachter because nobody knows her and nobody wants to know her! She wants to remember an event of her life, that has change her existence.

Harold Arnett

The them of this poemi s the fear of life. The authot presents the story of a man, Harold Arnett, who killed himself because he was unsatisfied with his life and he had carried off a lot of failure. Everything bores and disgusts him; he can't face his destiny. So he decide sto pull the triger, but then he realises with regret that nobody can escare the eternal destiny of life.

There are some repetitions, like "sick sick" in the first line, "feverish feverish" in the seventh line and "breathe" and "with lungs" in the fourteenth and fiftteenth line.

There are no similes, metaphors or personifications in the poem.

George Gray

Style: the poet uses a loto of metaphors to compare his life to a boat. He also uses some personification and there is an anaphor at the lines 11 and 12. the rhyme scheme isn't regular. There is a chiasmus at 14 and 1 lines "meaning life-life meaning",

Meaning: the dead person George Gray was searching the meaning of his life when he was alive. Only now he understands that he didin't live, because he was frightened of love, sorrow and ambitions, but now he knows that he should have followed his destiny, wherever it drove him. Following his destiny meant "putting a meaning" in his life and he was afraid this could drives him mad. So he lived without a meaning and his his life was only the torture of desire. The marble, which was chiselled for him, is like a boat with a furled sail at rest in a harbor that means George Gray's life.

Alexander Throckmorton

Alexander Throckmorton talks about youth and old age. When he was young he was strong but he didn't know what is really important, then when he was old he was wiser and he had understood the meaning of life, bur he's also weak and tired. The poet use some metaphors: the wings mean the vigour of youth and the mountains mean the high ideals and the wisdom. This poem is quiet easy and short but hides important purports.

The Unknown

in this epitaph the author presents the story of the unknown. When he was a boy he went to the forest and he shot a hawk. He had broken its wing and then he put the bird in a cage. The hawk is angry with him and refuses the food from the man who locked it up and it prefers to die instead of living without freedom.. like the hawk also the unknown looks for freedom, because life wounded and caged him; this can be understood by the fact that he has no stone to mark the place where he lies. The poem wants to say to us that is important to follow a way in life and to defend the freedom also with the death.

Judge Selah Lively

Before becoming a judge, selah lively was jeered by the people of the village. He stood just five feet two and he worked as a grocery clerk, so it was so difficult for him to be respected. He studied law during the night and finally he became attorney for Thomas Rhodes, but through it all the people of the village joked him. This situation had gone on until he became the County judge. Now the people, who used to mock him, had to stand in front of him and say <your honbor>. Selah lively, in this poem, tells us that when they finally respected him he wants to avenge for all the time he suffered because of their jokes.