Edgar Lee Masters’ “Deacon Taylor,” “Sam Hookey,” and “Cooney Potter”

 Edgar Lees Masters’ “Deacon Taylor,” “Sam Hookey,” and “Cooney Potter”

These three very short epitaphs from Edgar Lee Masters’ American Classic Spoon River Anthology feature diverse characters making bizarre confessions.

Introduction:  A Motley Trio

Edgar Lee Masters’ “Deacon Taylor,” “Sam Hookey,” and “Cooney Potter” from Masters’ American classic Spoon River Anthology portray characters of little depth, so they are presented here together.  These three very short epitaphs feature very diverse characters making bizarre confessions.

Each character features the complaining mind-set of most the after-death reporters; however, this trio gives few details about each of their stories.  They just want to chime in with a short quip about their lives., so it seems.

Deacon Taylor’s confession reveals his hypocrisy, being a churchman and a member of the “prohibition” party, yet dying of cirrhosis of the liver. 

Sam Hookey’s report may be one of the most bizarre as it remains unclear his purpose for revealing the odd appearance of “Robespierre” to him after Hookey’s death.

Cooney Potter’s description of his death is odd, but his purpose is clear.  He needs to show that he died while working, not from a frivolous enjoyment of tobacco.

Deacon Taylor

I belonged to the church,
And to the party of prohibition;
And the villagers thought I died of eating watermelon. 
In truth I had cirrhosis of the liver,
For every noon for thirty years, I slipped behind the prescription partition
In Trainor’s drug store
And poured a generous drink
From the bottle marked
“Spiritus frumenti.”

Commentary on “Deacon Taylor

This speaker wants to get a dirty little secret off his chest.

First Movement:  Member of Church and Prohibition Party

Taylor says he was a church member as well as belonging to the “party of prohibition.”   And so when he died the villagers thought he “died of eating watermelon.”

Second Movement:  Died of Cirrhosis

But the Deacon confesses that he actually died of cirrhosis of the liver, because for thirty years he “slipped behind the prescription partition / In Trainor’s drug store” and gulped down a large portion of “Spiritus frumenti.”

Sam Hookey

I ran away from home with the circus,
Having fallen in love with Mademoiselle Estralada,
The lion tamer.
One time, having starved the lions
For more than a day,
I entered the cage and began to beat Brutus
And Leo and Gypsy.  
Whereupon Brutus sprang upon me,  
And killed me.  
On entering these regions
I met a shadow who cursed me,
And said it served me right….  
It was Robespierre!

Commentary on “Sam Hookey

Sam Hookey offers a bizarre admission about the events leading to his ultimate demise.

First Movement:  For the Love of a Lion Tamer

Sam reports that he left home to join the circus after he fell in love the lion tamer, Mademoiselle Estralada.

Second Movement:  Karmic Lions

In his bizarre confession, Sam reveals that he starved three lions, Brutus, Leo, and Gypsy, and then stepped into their cage and began beating them, whereupon Brutus “sprang upon me / And killed me.”

Third Movement:  Chickens Coming Home to Roost

Upon his death, Sam found himself confronted by “a shadow” that cursed him and told him that he got what he deserved.  He concludes by saying the “shadow” was Robespierre, the famous politician who is credited with the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution.

Cooney Potter

I inherited forty acres from my Father
And, by working my wife, my two sons and two daughters
From dawn to dusk, I acquired  
A thousand acres. But not content,
Wishing to own two thousand acres, I bustled through the years with axe and plow,
Toiling, denying myself, my wife, my sons, my daughters.  
Squire Higbee wrongs me to say
That I died from smoking Red Eagle cigars.
Eating hot pie and gulping coffee
During the scorching hours of harvest time
Brought me here ere I had reached my sixtieth year.

Commentary on “Cooney Potter”

Cooney Potter simply wants to refute the contention made by Squire Higbee about Potter’s death.

First Movement:  Farm Expansion

Sam states that his father left him “forty acres.”  By hard work, including that of his wife and four children all laboring from “dawn to dusk,” Sam was able expand his farm from forty acres to “a thousand acres.”

Second Movement:  Striving for Two Thousand

Sam was not satisfied with his thousand acres, and therefore kept his family busy, “Toiling, denying myself, my wife, my sons, my daughters” striving to acquire a second thousand acres.  He does not make it clear that he succeeded in reaching the two-thousand-acre goal.

Third Movement:  Death before Sixty

Sam complains, “Squire Higbee wrongs me” when he claimed Sam “died from smoking Red Eagle cigars.”  Sam insists he died from “eating hot pie and gulping coffee / During the scorching hours of harvest time.”  Finally, he reveals that he died before he had attained the age of sixty.