Edgar Lee Masters’ “Kinsey Keene”

Edgar Lee Masters’ “Kinsey Keene”

Edgar Lee Masters’ “Kinsey Keene” offers a unique conundrum as it forces the reader to muse upon the two legendary claims regarding a famous quotation.

Introduction and Text of “Kinsey Keene”

Edgar Lee Masters’ “Kinsey Keene” from his American classic Spoon River Anthology focuses on a legendary quotation by the French commander  General Count Etienne Cambronne at the losing end of the Battle at Waterloo.  

When the British were about to vanquish the Old Guard, British Major-GeneralPeregrine Maitland called for the French to surrender, but Cambronne allegedly responded, “La Garde meurt, elle ne se rend pas!” (“The Guard may die, but it will never surrender”).  Cambronne repudiated the claim that he said those words, and legend has filled in the rest—claiming that he said, “Merde!” which translates variously as “F**k off!” or “Shit!”  

Now to which legendary quotation Master’s speaker is alluding can be a matter of interpretation:  that he fails to offer the quotation might indicate that he has in mind the obscenity.  However, because he has already quoted the British Major-General’s command, he perhaps is implying the response about no surrender.  Regardless of which quotation the speaker is evoking, the same non-conformist, adversarial attitude is displayed by Kinsey Keene.

Kinsey Keene

Your attention, Thomas Rhodes, president of the bank;
Coolbaugh Whedon, editor of the Argus;  
Rev. Peet, pastor of the leading church;  
A. D. Blood, several times Mayor of Spoon River;
And finally all of you, members of the Social Purity Club—
Your attention to Cambronne’s dying words,  
Standing with the heroic remnant  
Of Napoleon’s guard on Mount Saint Jean
At the battle field of Waterloo,  
When Maitland, the Englishman, called to them:
“Surrender, brave Frenchmen!”—  
There at close of day with the battle hopelessly lost,  
And hordes of men no longer the army  
Of the great Napoleon
Streamed from the field like ragged strips
Of thunder clouds in the storm.  
Well, what Cambronne said to Maitland
Ere the English fire made smooth the brow of the hill  
Against the sinking light of day
Say I to you, and all of you,
And to you, O world.
And I charge you to carve it
Upon my stone.

Commentary on “Kinsey Keene”

Edgar Lee Masters’ “Kinsey Keene” offers a unique conundrum which requires readers to ruminate upon the two legendary claims regarding a famous quotation.

First Movement:  Addressing the Upper Crust

Your attention, Thomas Rhodes, president of the bank;
Coolbaugh Whedon, editor of the Argus;  
Rev. Peet, pastor of the leading church;  
A. D. Blood, several times Mayor of Spoon River;
And finally all of you, members of the Social Purity Club—

Kinsey Keene addresses some of the upper crust of the fictional town of Spoon River: the president of the bank, the editor of the newspaper, the pastor of the leading church, and a “several times” mayor of the town.   He also calls for the attention of “all of you, members of the Social Purity Club”—a fictional club that implies Keene’s disdain for the town’s leaders.

Second Movement:  Allusion to a Legend

Your attention to Cambronne’s dying words,  
Standing with the heroic remnant  
Of Napoleon’s guard on Mount Saint Jean
At the battle field of Waterloo,  
When Maitland, the Englishman, called to them:
“Surrender, brave Frenchmen!”—  

The second movement reveals that Keene is drawing attention to those famous, legendary words of the dying French commander, General Count Etienne Cambronne.   Instead of revealing the words, Keene describes the scene:  the French general was “standing with heroic remnant / Of Napoleon’s guard on Mount Saint Jean / At the battle field of Waterloo.” Thus placed, Cambronne was accosted by the command of the British general Maitland, who demanded, “Surrender, brave Frenchmen!”

Third Movement:  A Lost Battle

There at close of day with the battle hopelessly lost,  
And hordes of men no longer the army  
Of the great Napoleon
Streamed from the field like ragged strips
Of thunder clouds in the storm.  

Again, Keene describes the battlefield.  It is “at close of day,” the battle lost, and the once proud French army of “the great Napoleon” was moving restlessly from the battlefield.  He compares the appearance of  soldiers to “ragged strips / Of thunder clouds in the storm.”  

Fourth Movement:  What Did Cambronne Say?

Well, what Cambronne said to Maitland
Ere the English fire made smooth the brow of the hill  
Against the sinking light of day
Say I to you, and all of you,
And to you, O world.
And I charge you to carve it
Upon my stone.

Keene then inserts the phantom quotation by referring to it with the clause “what Cambronne said to Maitland.”  Before the English continued to demolish the “brow of the hill / Against the sinking light of day,” Cambronne made his famous remark.    Now, Keene defiantly thrusts that same statement at his adversaries and challenges them to engrave the remark upon his grave marker.

Of course, the French lost the Battle of Waterloo and Napoleon was exiled.  Historians remain uncertain regarding the Cambronne quotation:  perhaps he merely said, “The Guard dies but never surrenders,” or as others have asserted, Cambronne might uttered the obscene, “Merde!”

This final command to carve the Cambronne quotation upon his stone leaves the reader again with the ambiguity for interpretation:  does Keene want an obscenity carved upon his stone, or just a defiant, “never surrender”?  Either way, he gets his point across—that he never surrendered his own sense of dignity to that of the town’s corrupt leaders.