Author: Linda Sue Grimes

Edgar Lee Masters’ “Theodore the Poet”

The speaker in Edgar Lee Masters’ “Theodore the Poet” contemplates the purpose of life employing a comparison of crawfish and people.

Introduction and Text of “Theodore the Poet”

Edgar Lee Masters’ “Theodore the Poet” from Masters’ American classic Spoon River Anthology consists of two grand movements, each with three minor movements. The first grand movement focuses on Theodore’s intense scrutiny of crawfish. The second grand movement reveals that same level of study of people. 

This complex arrangement fits the conception of this unique speaker as a “poet.”  As poets are makers, they need material for the making; unfortunately, Theodore offers no examples of his poetic products, only the moving part of his mind, gathered in those bits of materials.

Theodore the Poet

As a boy, Theodore, you sat for long hours
On the shore of the turbid Spoon  
With deep-set eye staring at the door of the crawfish’s burrow,
Waiting for him to appear, pushing ahead,
First his waving antennæ, like straws of hay,
And soon his body, colored like soap-stone,
Gemmed with eyes of jet.  
And you wondered in a trance of thought  
What he knew, what he desired, and why he lived at all.
But later your vision watched for men and women
Hiding in burrows of fate amid great cities,
Looking for the souls of them to come out,
So that you could see  
How they lived, and for what,
And why they kept crawling so busily
Along the sandy way where water fails
As the summer wanes.

Commentary on “Theodore the Poet” 

Edgar Lee Masters’ “Theodore the Poet” displays in a complex pattern of two grand movements, each with three minor movements.

First Grand Movement:  Observation of Crawfish

In the first grand movement, the speaker offers details gleaned from his hours of observing crawfish. This movement plays out in the first, second, and third minor movements.

First Minor Movement:  Addressing His Alter Ego

As a boy, Theodore, you sat for long hours
On the shore of the turbid Spoon  
With deep-set eye staring at the door of the crawfish’s burrow,
Waiting for him to appear, pushing ahead,

As Theodore addresses an alter ego, he is demonstrating the introspective nature of the poet. He begins by broaching the subject of his life-long habit of sitting by Spoon River “for long hours.” As Theodore sat peering intensely at the opening of the crawfish’s abode, the budding poet in him waited with curiosity for the crawfish to appear.

Second Minor Movement:  Crawfish

First his waving antennæ, like straws of hay,
And soon his body, colored like soap-stone,
Gemmed with eyes of jet.  

The speaker then dramatizes his next act of talking to himself as he vividly describes the appearance of the crawfish followed by their activities. The crawfish’s antennae were waving, and they looked like “straws of hay.”  

After the hay-like antennae appeared, the body of the crawfish soon emerged.  The crawfish body was the color of “soap-stone,” and it was “gemmed with eyes of jet.”  Theodore knows these details because he so studiously observed them.

Third Minor Movement:  Philosophical Turn of Mind

And you wondered in a trance of thought  
What he knew, what he desired, and why he lived at all.

In the final minor movement of the first grand movement, the speaker reveals what was on his mind as he watched the crawfish. He was, in fact, musing on and wondering about what the crawfish knew and what they desired.  Finally, he desired to understand why those creature even existed.   

Theodore’s observations and musing demonstrate the philosophical nature of the mind of his ilk as a poet.  Poets like Ralph Waldo Emerson possessed that same kind of philosophical mind—observing, wondering, musing, and finally putting those musings down in written form.

Second Grand Movement: Observation of People

In the second grand movement, the speaker offers his observation of people.  This grand movement displays in the following fourth, fifth, and sixth  three minor movements.

Fourth Minor Movement:  From Crawfish to People

But later your vision watched for men and women
Hiding in burrows of fate amid great cities,
Looking for the souls of them to come out,

In the second grand movement, later in Theodore’s life, instead of watching crawfish, he turned to observing people; thus he claims that “men and women” became the focus of his peering eye. 

Because of Theodore’s former experience of waiting and watching for crawfish, the speaker/poet metaphorically refers to the places from which people exit as “burrows,” as he referred to the abode of the crawfish. 

But he describes those people-burrows as great “hiding” places where those men and women play out their “fate amid great cities.”   Theodore then explains that he was watching the people to determine the nature of their souls; thus he was constantly searching for evidence of soulful behavior of the men and women he so studiously watched.

Fifth Minor Movement:  Same Attitude

So that you could see  
How they lived, and for what,

In this transitional movement, Theodore reveals that he watched the people with nearly the identical attitude that he had watched the crawfish: he wanted to understand the nature and procedure involved in the lives of those men and women as well as what those people desired out of life.  

The philosophical mind of Theodore the Poet has drawn the inevitable parallel between human and animal life in such a way as to confound the minds of lesser observers.  Theodore’s observations have thus offered a unique poetic view of creation.

Sixth Minor Movement:  The Question of Existence Remains

And why they kept crawling so busily
Along the sandy way where water fails
As the summer wanes.

Theodore wanted to understand people as well crawfish, but in the end, people became virtually indistinguishable from the crawfish.   In Theodore’s colorful description, just as the crawfish crawled over the sand, the people, in Theodore’s mind, took on the same quality of “crawling so busily / Along the sandy way.”

Also like crawfish, those men and women seemed to be moving along that same “sandy way where water fails / As the summer wanes.”  Theodore has concluded that both crawfish and humankind seem to live rather useless lives.

Because he leaves off his discussion without approaching his other main desire of knowing why those creatures, whether belonging to the animal kingdom or to the human race exist at all, he is implying that he will continue to wonder why. 

And quite likely he has concluded that there is no answer that the human mind can ever conceive which can fully and finally answer that ultimate question of existence.

Edgar Lee Masters’ “Zenas Witt”

One of Spoon River’s more vague speakers from the grave, “Zenas Witt” does make it clear that he suffered a miserable existence from age sixteen. 

Introduction and Text of “Zenas Witt”

Edgar Lee Masters’ “Zenas Witt” from Masters’ American classic Spoon River Anthology features an unfortunate character whose nerves, it would seem, led him to an early grave. Zenas is one of Edgar Lee Masters’ more vague speakers from the Spoon River graveyard.  

This speaker does manage to impart the fact that his short life caused him great suffering before it was extinguished at an early age sometime vaguely after he had turned sixteen.  

Zenas never becomes specific enough to let the reader know exactly when he died or what caused his demise.  That omission seems to be intentionally motivated in order to emphasize the young man’s poor memory and weakness of health.

Zenas Witt

I was sixteen, and I had the most terrible dreams,
And specks before my eyes, and nervous weakness. 
And I couldn’t remember the books I read,
Like Frank Drummer who memorized page after page 
And my back was weak, and I worried and worried,
And I was embarrassed and stammered my lessons, 
And when I stood up to recite I’d forget 
Everything that I had studied. 
Well, I saw Dr. Weese’s advertisement, 
And there I read everything in print,
Just as if he had known me; 
And about the dreams which I couldn’t help. 
So I knew I was marked for an early grave. 
And I worried until I had a cough, 
And then the dreams stopped.
And then I slept the sleep without dreams 
Here on the hill by the river.

Commentary on “Zenas Witt”

Zenas is fixated on his poor health issues.  He is especially disturbed about his inability to remember things he had learned.

First Movement:   Fuzzy Thinking

I was sixteen, and I had the most terrible dreams,
And specks before my eyes, and nervous weakness. 
And I couldn’t remember the books I read,
Like Frank Drummer who memorized page after page 

Zenas begins his discourse, by announcing that when he was sixteen years old, he had “the most terrible dreams.”  He saw “specks before [his] eyes.”  He reports his inability to remember books he had read. He likens his condition to “Frank Drummer,” who claimed to have memorized the entire Encyclopedia Britannica.  

The disconnect between Zenas’ assertion that his condition was similar to Frank Drummer and his own description of his difficulty demonstrates the fuzzy thinking that the former seems to suffer in addition to his physical problems.

Second Movement:  Bad Health

And my back was weak, and I worried and worried,
And I was embarrassed and stammered my lessons, 
And when I stood up to recite I’d forget 
Everything that I had studied. 

Zenas continues to describe his unfortunate health issues:  he had a weak back, he worried excessively, he was easily embarrassed by his maladies, and when he had to stand up in class to recite his lessons, he would forget them.   Zenas’ memory was so bad that even though he had studied, he could never remember anything he had committed to memory.

Third Movement:  Miracle Cure

Well, I saw Dr. Weese’s advertisement, 
And there I read everything in print,
Just as if he had known me; 
And about the dreams which I couldn’t help. 

Zenas reports that he saw “Dr. Weese’s advertisement” and was attracted by what the ad said.  He read everything about Dr. Weese’s putative miracle cure.  Zenas felt that the doctor was describing his own situation, “just as if he had known me.” 

The doc even knows about the dreams, and Zenas feels he must emphasis that he could not control the dreams.  Such a confession implies that Zenas might have believed he had control over his other woes but felt guilty that he did not do so.

Fourth Movement:   No Miracle Cur

So I knew I was marked for an early grave. 
And I worried until I had a cough, 
And then the dreams stopped. 

Nothing ever came of this possible miracle cure, and Zenas admits that he was sure he would die early.  Thus, he continued to worry right up until the time developed a cough.     He says that the dreams abruptly came to a halt.  He does not elaborate or even hint at how long he continued to suffer his nervousness, nightmares, and poor memory.

Fifth Movement:   No Dreaming on the Hill

And then I slept the sleep without dreams 
Here on the hill by the river.

Suddenly, without fanfare, Zenas is dead.  He dramatically and poetically refers to his condition as “slee[ping] the sleep without dreams / Here on the hill by the river.” Zenas is one of the more tight-lipped deceased reporters from the Spoon River graveyard.  

The reader never learns the specifics of his illnesses and is left to guess their nature as well as just how long Zenas had to suffer them.  He also leaves unclear just exactly what eventually killed him.

Edgar Lee Masters’ “Charlie French”

Charlie French died of lockjaw, wondering which of his friends had shot off the cap pistol that delivered the fatal blow. 

Introduction and Text of “Charlie French”

Edgar Lee Masters’ “Charlie French” from Spoon River Anthology features its character musing about who might have been responsible for his contracting lockjaw which lead to his death.  

The little drama creates a speaker in Charlie who finds himself obsessed with a specific detail.   After dying from this dreadful disease, he has his mind fixed upon who did it, who “snapped the toy pistol against” his hand.

Charlie French

Did you ever find out
Which one of the O’Brien boys it was
Who snapped the toy pistol against my hand?  
There when the flags were red and white  
In the breeze and “Bucky” Estil
Was firing the cannon brought to Spoon River  
From Vicksburg by Captain Harris;
And the lemonade stands were running  
And the band was playing,  
To have it all spoiled
By a piece of a cap shot under the skin of my hand,
And the boys all crowding about me saying:
“You’ll die of lock-jaw, Charlie, sure.”
Oh, dear! oh, dear!
What chum of mine could have done it?

Commentary on “Charlie French”

After dying of lockjaw, Charlie French has continued to wonder and obsess about which of his friends had shot off the cap pistol that delivered the fatal blow.

First Movement:  Unidentified Listener

Did you ever find out
Which one of the O’Brien boys it was
Who snapped the toy pistol against my hand?  

Charlie is addressing an eclipsed listener, that is, a listener who cannot be identified.  Traditionally, when a poet’s speaker seems to be addressing no one, the context usually reveals that the speaker is, in fact, musing to him/herself.  But this is not the case with Charlie.   

Charlie French wants to know who the culprit is who shot off a cap gun against his hand.  He asks the question at the beginning of his discourse and then concludes the discourse with the same question.  After his musing, he remains in the dark about who the cap-gun shooter was; thus he repeats the question.

Second Movement:   A Civil War Enactment

There when the flags were red and white  
In the breeze and “Bucky” Estil
Was firing the cannon brought to Spoon River  
From Vicksburg by Captain Harris;

Charlie describes the event at which his fatality occurred.  The description reveals a Civil War enactment or some other military observance.  There were “red and white” flags flapping in the breeze, while “Bucky” Estil was firing up the cannon.  

The cannon had been transported to Spoon River by “Captain Harris,” who brought it all the way from Vicksburg. The Civil War era relic suggests that the celebration might have been a commemoration of that war, the American Civil War 1861–1865.

Third Movement:  The Cap-Gun Mishap

And the lemonade stands were running  
And the band was playing,  
To have it all spoiled
By a piece of a cap shot under the skin of my hand,

In addition to the cannon fire and flags, there were lemonade stands and a “band was playing.”  Then upon this jubilant scene intrudes Charlie’s unfortunate and ultimately fatal cap-gun shooting.  The day was moving along splendidly, “To have it all spoiled / By a piece of a cap shot under the skin of my hand.”

Fourth Movement:   Strong Suggestibility

And the boys all crowding about me saying:
“You’ll die of lock-jaw, Charlie, sure.”

Seeing the cap-shot stain under Charlie’s skin, the other boys gathered around him and started making comments:  “You’ll die of lock-jaw, Charlie, sure.”   The suggestion frightened Charlie so severely that he actually did contract the disease, and then he expired, leaving the reader little knowledge about this character other than his strong suggestibility.

Fifth Movement:   It’s a Who Dunnit

Oh, dear! oh, dear!
What chum of mine could have done it?

The exclamation, “Oh, dear! oh, dear!,” connects two strands of thought and activity:   First, the boys who were observing Charlie’s cap-gun shot hand are thinking thus, if, in fact they are not the ones projecting this utterance.

And second, Charlie himself definitely engages this “oh dear” sentiment about his own health’s prospects; therefore, the implication is that Charlie let out this cry.    Charlie’s main reason for carrying on this discourse is further emphasized as he continues to wonder, “What chum of mine could have done it?”