Linda's Literary Home

Tag: American Classics

  • Edgar Lee Masters’ “Margaret Fuller Slack”

    Image: Edgar Lee Masters, Esq. https://librarycollections.law.umn.edu/darrow/trials_details.php?id=4 Clarence Darrow Law Library
    Image: Edgar Lee Masters, Esq. – Clarence Darrow Law Library

    Edgar Lee Masters’ “Margaret Fuller Slack”

    Named for America’s first feminist writer Margaret Fuller, Mrs. Slack laments marriage and motherhood that crushed her dreams of greatness in becoming a famous writer or the next George Eliot.

    Introduction and Text of “Margaret Fuller Slack”

    Edgar Lee Masters’ “Margaret Fuller Slack” from his American classic Spoon River Anthology depicts a tormented woman, who believes motherhood doomed her ambition to become a great writer. 

    Ironically named after the first American feminist, “Margaret Fuller,” Mrs. Slack does possess the egotistical personality of her namesake, while suffering the ills that they both decry.

    Margaret Fuller Slack

    I would have been as great as George Eliot
    But for an untoward fate.
    For look at the photograph of me made by Penniwit,
    Chin resting on hand, and deep-set eyes—
    Gray, too, and far-searching. But there was the old, old problem:
    Should it be celibacy, matrimony or unchastity?
    Then John Slack, the rich druggist, wooed me,
    Luring me with the promise of leisure for my novel,
    And I married him, giving birth to eight children,
    And had no time to write.
    It was all over with me, anyway,
    When I ran the needle in my hand
    While washing the baby’s things,
    And died from lock-jaw, an ironical death. Hear me, ambitious souls,
    Sex is the curse of life!

    Commentary on “Margaret Fuller Slack”

    Named for America’s first feminist writer, Margaret Fuller, Mrs. Slack laments marriage and motherhood that crushed her dreams of greatness in becoming the next George Eliot.

    First Movement:  She Would Have

    I would have been as great as George Eliot
    But for an untoward fate.

    Mrs. Slack begins her tirade by proclaiming the greatness she “would have” accomplished:  she “would have been as great as George Eliot.”  Nevertheless, this speaker did not ascend to such a great height, because “untoward fate” stepped on her dreams.

    Second Movement:  A Photo of Profundity

    For look at the photograph of me made by Penniwit,
    Chin resting on hand, and deep-set eyes—
    Gray, too, and far-searching.

    Mrs. Slack possesses a “photograph of [herself] made by Penniwit,” an artist who later also speaks in the Spoon River Anthology.  Margaret uses the photograph to support her contention that she was marked for greatness.

    In the photo, she sits with her “chin resting on hand,” and she has “deep-set eyes” that are “gray” and “far-searching.”   These qualities in her estimation reveal a profundity that should have allowed her to accomplish greatness, the absence of which she now laments.

    Third Movement:   The Age Old Problem

    But there was the old, old problem:
    Should it be celibacy, matrimony or unchastity?

    Margaret then philosophizes about the human condition, claiming the “old, old problem” is whether one should remain celibate, marry, or simply commit fornication.  Mrs. Slack does not reveal how deeply she thought about those alternatives, or even if she had thought about them at all.   As the speaker reminisces, she, no doubt, adds to her own self worth, by implying that she had thought and pondered those issues.

    Fourth Movement:  The Promise of Leisure

    Then John Slack, the rich druggist, wooed me,
    Luring me with the promise of leisure for my novel,
    And I married him, giving birth to eight children,
    And had no time to write.

    Before Mrs. Slack had the opportunity to determine which path was the right one for her to travel to fame, she found herself “wooed” by “John Slack, the rich druggist.”  The druggist “lur[ed]” her by “promis[ing] [her] leisure”—time she would use to write “[her] novel.” 

    With this promise of leisure, Margaret married the druggist, but instead of writing, she proceeded to give birth to “eight children.”  Of course, with eight children, she can fall back on the excuse that she “had no time to write.”   Apparently, Mrs. Slack remained blissfully unaware that famous poet, Anne Bradstreet, created a significant body of writing while birthing and raising eight children.

    Fifth Movement:  Dying of Lock-Jaw, Filled with Words

    It was all over with me, anyway,
    When I ran the needle in my hand
    While washing the baby’s things,
    And died from lock-jaw, an ironical death.

    Margaret then reveals how she died, “It was all over with me, anyway, / When I ran the needle in my hand.”  She met with this sad fate, while “washing the baby’s things.”  She contracted “lock-jaw” and died.  

    Mrs. Slack finds dying of lock-jaw to be “ironical,” no doubt, because she considered herself filled with words—words unfortunately that would remain unexpressed because of the time-consuming servitude of raising a family.   And, of course, in keeping with her own selfishness, she does not consider how her absence will impact the lives of the children she leaves behind.

    Sixth Movement:  The Urge vs the Philosophy

    Hear me, ambitious souls,
    Sex is the curse of life!

    Margaret’s final statement oversimplifies her lot but reveals her philosophical conclusion about “life” as she remarks, “Sex is the curse of life!”  Readers, unfortunately, will never be able to experience the profundity of that statement because Margaret’s ambition to write was obliterated by her urge to procreate. 

  • Edgar Lee Masters’ “Harold Arnett”

    Image: Edgar Lee Masters https://factfile.org/10-facts-about-edgar-lee-masters#google_vignette
    Image: Edgar Lee Masters

    Edgar Lee Masters’ “Harold Arnett”

    After committing suicide, “Harold Arnett” confirms the futility of the act. 

    Introduction and Text of “Harold Arnett”

    Edgar Lee Masters’ “Harold Arnett” from the poet’s American classic Spoon River Anthology portrays a character who learns that the duty of facing trials and tribulations does not end with merely leaving the physical world.

    Harold Arnett

    I leaned against the mantel, sick, sick,
    Thinking of my failure, looking into the abysm,  
    Weak from the noon-day heat.
    A church bell sounded mournfully far away,
    I heard the cry of a baby,
    And the coughing of John Yarnell,
    Bed-ridden, feverish, feverish, dying,
    Then the violent voice of my wife:  
    “Watch out, the potatoes are burning!”
    I smelled them … then there was irresistible disgust.
    I pulled the trigger … blackness … light…  
    Unspeakable regret … fumbling for the world again.
    Too late! Thus I came here,
    With lungs for breathing … one cannot breathe here with lungs,
    Though one must breathe…. Of what use is it
    To rid one’s self of the world,
    When no soul may ever escape the eternal destiny of life?

    Commentary on “Harold Arnett”

    After committing suicide, Harold Arnett confirms the futility of the act.

    First Movement:   Mind on Failure

    I leaned against the mantel, sick, sick,
    Thinking of my failure, looking into the abysm,  
    Weak from the noon-day heat.

    The speaker begins his dismal report by describing how he is feeling very sick as he “lean[s] against the mantel.”  His mind was on something at which he has failed, but about which he never reveals any information.   He continues, saying he was peering into some deep chasm, and the hot mid-day heat was making him feel weak.

    Second Movement:  Church Bell and Crying Baby

    A church bell sounded mournfully far away,
    I heard the cry of a baby,
    And the coughing of John Yarnell,
    Bed-ridden, feverish, feverish, dying,
    Then the violent voice of my wife:  

    Arnett then reports that he hears the distant chiming of “a church bell,” and he also hears a baby crying.  At first, the reader will take these to be actual sounds that Arnett is hearing as he indulges his melancholy at the fireplace.  

    But then Arnett adds that he hears John Yarnell coughing.  Unless John Yarnell is a sick guest in Arnett’s home, it is likely that Arnett is hearing all of these sounds only in his memory’s ear and not literally.   Arnett never clears up any of these vague strands of thought because they are not the focus of his soliloquy.

    Third Movement:  A Violent Voice

    Then the violent voice of my wife:
    “Watch out, the potatoes are burning!”
    I smelled them … then there was irresistible disgust.

    Arnett snaps the reader into the scene as he claims he hears “the violent voice of [his]wife.”  That “violent voice,” the reader later realizes will be the last thing Arnett hears, and perhaps its implication for the personality of the wife adds to the motivation of Arnett’s own violent act.

    That violent voice screeched out to Arnett,  trying to alert him that the potatoes were on fire.  Arnett then becomes aware of the burning stench and is filled with an “irresistible disgust.”

    Fourth Movement:  There Is no Unringing the Bell

    I pulled the trigger … blackness … light…  
    Unspeakable regret … fumbling for the world again.

    With the sound of a “violent voice” and the disgusting smell of burning potatoes in his consciousness, Arnett “pulled the trigger,” killing himself.  Immediately, he sees “blackness . . . light” and feels “unspeakable regret.”  

    Arnett then finds that he is “fumbling for the world again.” After Arnett had pulled the trigger, his next reflex was to attempt to unpull it.  He immediately feels regretful of his impulsive act and tries, in vain, to get back to his life.

    Fifth Movement:   Moving Toward Destiny

    Too late! Thus I came here,
    With lungs for breathing … one cannot breathe here with lungs,
    Though one must breathe….

    However, Arnett’s “fumbling,” of course, fails.  He reports, “Too late!”  Therefore he says he “came here.”  Instead of being taken to his grave, Arnett claims he “came” to it, sounding as if he simply leisurely gave up and walked into death instead of having been forced into it. 

    Arnett then focuses on the very physical, human act of “breathing.”  As he entered death, he entered with “lungs for breathing,” but the very dreadful truth is that in the grave, or simply in the state beyond life, “one cannot breathe with lungs.”

    Arnett’s emphasis on lungs and breathing demonstrates the strong connection between breathing and remaining in the physical body. Although Arnett’s physical body still possessed lungs, they became useless to him in the after-life state, and he is frustrated by that conundrum; he says, “one must breathe.”

    Sixth Movement:  The Futility of Suicide

    …        Of what use is it
    To rid one’s self of the world,
    When no soul may ever escape the eternal destiny of life?

    Arnett’s conclusion demonstrates the futility of suicide.  Framed as a question, Arnett’s final reaction emphasizes that souls cannot escape from their well-earned karma by simply ridding themselves of their physical bodies.   Arnett asks, “what use is it,” to leave the world behind, when the soul still continues to be affected by its own “destiny of life,” another name for which is karma.

  • Edgar Lee Masters’ “Percy Bysshe Shelley”

    Image:  Edgar Lee Masters - Portrait by Francis J. Quirk https://francisquirk.blogspot.com/2017/03/visit-to-national-portrait-gallery.html
    Image:  Edgar Lee Masters – Portrait by Francis J. Quirk

    Edgar Lee Masters’ “Percy Bysshe Shelley”

    The speaker in Edgar Lee Masters’ “Percy Bysshe Shelley” dramatizes the relationship between his father and himself, and those differences were vast and deep.

    Introduction and Text of “Percy Bysshe Shelley”

    Edgar Lee Masters’ “Percy Bysshe Shelley” from his American classic Spoon River Anthology consists of five tercets, each constructing its own movement and rendering this character-poem named for a poet one of the most highly structured of all the Spoon River poem offerings. The poem creates a drama, featuring the odd relationship between a father and son.

    The father had great aspirations for his son, but Percy did not have the mental and spiritual wherewithal to live up to the father’s wishes.  The interesting missing feature from the relationship seems to be any malice.  There is no hint of friction between the two, although they had very different temperaments and desires.

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    My father who owned the wagon-shop
    And grew rich shoeing horses
    Sent me to the University of Montreal.
    I learned nothing and returned home,
    Roaming the fields with Bert Kessler,
    Hunting quail and snipe.
    At Thompson’s Lake the trigger of my gun
    Caught in the side of the boat
    And a great hole was shot through my heart.
    Over me a fond father erected this marble shaft,
    On which stands the figure of a woman  
    Carved by an Italian artist.  
    They say the ashes of my namesake
    Were scattered near the pyramid of Caius Cestius
    Somewhere near Rome.

    Commentary “Percy Bysshe Shelley”

    In this poem, the speaker is dramatizing a relationship between a father and son, whose differences are many.  But while the relationship seems to have distance, there seems to be no animosity expressed by either father or son.

    First Movement:  Sent to Prestigious University

    My father who owned the wagon-shop
    And grew rich shoeing horses
    Sent me to the University of Montreal.

    Percy announces that his father ran a lucrative “wagon-shop,” earning enough money to send Percy to the “University of Montreal.”  The elder Shelley “grew rich shoeing horses.” 

    The claim sounds rather odd, and perhaps intends to serve as an exaggeration.  While such a shop might keep the owner from poverty, it is not likely that such a business would allow the owner to grow rich.

    Second Movement:  Learned Nothing

    I learned nothing and returned home,
    Roaming the fields with Bert Kessler,
    Hunting quail and snipe.

    In the second tercet, Percy admits that at the prestigious Canadian university, “I learned nothing.”  So after flunking out, he “returned home.”   Percy’s major activity from then on was hunting, “roaming the fields with Bert Kessler.”  They hunted “quail and snipe.”

    Third Movement:  An Accidental Shooting

    At Thompson’s Lake the trigger of my gun
    Caught in the side of the boat
    And a great hole was shot through my heart.

    Percy dies in the middle of his poem.  On one of his hunting expeditions “at Thompson’s Lake,” he is accidentally shot through the heart when “the trigger of [his] gun” becomes “caught in the side of the boat.”   Again, Percy’s penchant for exaggeration emerges, “a great hole was shot through my heart.”

    Fourth Movement:  A Grave Difference

    Over me a fond father erected this marble shaft,
    On which stands the figure of a woman  
    Carved by an Italian artist.  

    Percy’s grave is quite a spectacular sight.  An Italian artist’s “figure of a woman” guards his remains.  His “fond father” had “erected this marble shaft” and had the carving of the woman placed there.  

    The disconnect between the father and son is clearly demonstrated in this movement.  The father’s interests are not the same as the son’s.   Because the son’s only interest was hunting, it would be expected that some hunting related theme might be used to decorate the younger man’s grave.

    Fifth Movement:  A Bit of History

    They say the ashes of my namesake
    Were scattered near the pyramid of Caius Cestius
    Somewhere near Rome.

    Percy then states a bit of historical information regarding the biography of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, “[his] namesake.”   The speaker reveals that the poet’s ashes “were scattered near the pyramid of Caius Cestius / Somewhere near Rome.”

    Lack of Conflict

    The name of this character is quite ironic, but it symbolizes the vast difference between this father and son.  Percy could not even succeed in college, and his main interest was hunting, while the father had great ambitions for his son, beginning with his name and ending with the grave marker sculpted by an Italian artist.

    While most disparities of this nature between father and son lead to a stressful and often volatile relationship, there is no evidence that these two characters resented each other.   Percy remains rather emotionless but refers to his father as “a fond father” and seems very accepting of that fondness.  Percy just reports a few salient facts about this life but does not seem to be aggrieved, as so many of the Spoon River epitaphs reveal.

  • Edgar Lee Masters’ “‘Butch’ Weldy”

    Image: Edgar Lee Masters https://www.best-poems.net/edgar_lee_masters/index.html#google_vignette
    Image: Edgar Lee Masters

    Edgar Lee Masters’ “‘Butch’ Weldy”

    The epitaph “‘Butch’ Weldy” concludes the “Minerva” series. Butch declaims about his ordeal after a work related accident—with nary a nod to Minerva.

    Introduction with Text of Poem, “‘Butch’ Weldy”

    In Edgar Lee Masters’ “‘Butch’ Weldy” from the American classic Spoon River Anthology, the character of the man who impregnated Minerva Jones before he “got religion and steadied down” is revealed. 

    The reader will notice that Butch makes no reference to Minerva Jones, her father—Indignation Jones, or Doctor and Mrs. Meyers.   Butch’s choice of narrative subject reveals him to be a rather self-indulgent individual. The fifth and final installment in the “Minerva Jones” saga, “‘Butch’ Weldy” concludes the “Minerva Jones” series. 

    Butch declaims about his ordeal after a work related accident—with nary a nod to Minerva, but it is easy to understand how his own misery would tend to blot out his dealings with the ilk of Minerva, et al.

    “Butch” Weldy

    After I got religion and steadied down
    They gave me a job in the canning works,  
    And every morning I had to fill  
    The tank in the yard with gasoline,
    That fed the blow-fires in the sheds
    To heat the soldering irons.
    And I mounted a rickety ladder to do it,
    Carrying buckets full of the stuff.
    One morning, as I stood there pouring,
    The air grew still and seemed to heave,
    And I shot up as the tank exploded,
    And down I came with both legs broken,
    And my eyes burned crisp as a couple of eggs.
    For someone left a blow-fire going,  
    And something sucked the flame in the tank.
    The Circuit Judge said whoever did it
    Was a fellow-servant of mine, and so
    Old Rhodes’ son didn’t have to pay me.  
    And I sat on the witness stand as blind
    As Jack the Fiddler, saying over and over,
    “I didn’t know him at all.”

    Interpretive Reading 

    Commentary on “‘Butch’ Weldy”

    ‘Butch’ Weldy reveals himself to be a young man who has tried to rehabilitate himself from his earlier bad behavior.  But he meets with a terrible work-related accident that leaves him blind and crippled.

    His getting religion and steadying down likely improved his life in some regards.   But then after accepting a job at the canning factory, things fell apart.  He eventually shows himself to be a rather muddled-brained fellow as the tries to navigate a court trial.

    First Movement:  Weldy Get Religion and Takes a Job at the Canning Factory

    After I got religion and steadied down
    They gave me a job in the canning works,  
    And every morning I had to fill  
    The tank in the yard with gasoline,
    That fed the blow-fires in the sheds
    To heat the soldering irons.
    And I mounted a rickety ladder to do it,

    Presenting himself as a ne’er-do-well, Butch reports that he was able to find work after he “got religion and steadied down,” exposing his character as a gad-about, who likely indulged in all manner of adolescent chicanery.  This estimation of Weldy’s character can be inferred from the fact that he impregnated Minerva Jones out- of-wedlock. 

    Likely, Butch led Minerva to believe he loved her and after carrying on with her for a time that suited his fancy, he dumped her.  It remains unclear if Weldy ever knew about the baby, Minerva was carrying.

    Equally likely, however, is that he left the village poetess after finding out about the pregnancy, which he would not have entertained a desire to support  As Minerva said, Butch left her “to her fate with Doctor Meyers.” 

    Butch explains his job at the canning works, how he “mounted a rickety ladder” every morning “to fill / The tank in the yard with gasoline.” This fuel then fed the “blow-fires in the sheds / To heat the soldering irons.” 

    Second Movement:   The Work Incident That Blinded and Crippled Butch 

    Carrying buckets full of the stuff.
    One morning, as I stood there pouring,
    The air grew still and seemed to heave,
    And I shot up as the tank exploded,
    And down I came with both legs broken,
    And my eyes burned crisp as a couple of eggs.
    For someone left a blow-fire going,  
    And something sucked the flame in the tank.

    Butch then states that on one work morning as he was filling the tank with gasoline that he had fetched up the ladder, he noticed that suddenly the air around him became still but “seemed to heave.”

    All of a sudden, his body was hurled upward “as the tank exploded.”   From this unfortunate event, Butch suffered two broken legs and his eyes “burned crisp as a couple of eggs,” thus, rendering him blind. 

    Third Movement:  The Trial and the Failure to Be Compensated

    For someone left a blow-fire going,  
    And something sucked the flame in the tank.
    The Circuit Judge said whoever did it
    Was a fellow-servant of mine, and so
    Old Rhodes’ son didn’t have to pay me.

    A fellow worker had allowed one of the fires to continue to burn. Butch explains that the air sucked the flame in the tank.  Butch’s narrative then lurches quickly to the trial in which the Circuit Judge fails to award Weldy any damages.

    Butch’s attempt to recover damages from the canning works for his injuries is thwarted by the court which found that because a fellow worker had been negligent and caused the accident, the owners of the canning works could not be held responsible. 

    Fourth Movement:    Weldy Sues the Wrong Party

    And I sat on the witness stand as blind
    As Jack the Fiddler, saying over and over,
    “I didn’t know him at all.”

    Butch repeatedly protests that he did not know the fellow worker at all.  This response reveals a lack of understanding; the court was not saying the Butch and the perpetrator were buddies; it was saying that the canning works’ owners were not responsible.  It would therefore seem to follow that if Butch were to sue the fellow worker, he might have a case. 

    Butch remarks that he sat on the witness stand, “as blind / As Jack the Fiddler,” repeating his claim that he did not know the fellow employ who neglected to douse the fire in the shed.  Jack the Fiddler is an allusion to “Blind Jack,” who appears later on in the Spoon River Anthology.

    The Minerva Jones Sequence

    1. Minerva Jones  The “Minerva Jones” epitaph features one of the most depraved characters of the Spoon River talking dead. She is self-absorbed and haughty, lacking empathy and self-awareness, causing her to remain ignorant of her own discordant thoughts. 
    2. “Indignation” Jones  In the second epitaph of the “Minerva” series, the poetess’ father, “Indignation” Jones, fulminates against Spoon River society.
    3. Doctor Meyers The third epitaph in the Minerva Jones series features “Doctor Meyers,” who performed the abortion that led to the death of the unfortunate poetess.
    4. Mrs. Meyers  In the fourth epitaph in this series,”Mrs. Meyers,” Dr. Meyers’ wife testifies that her husband, whom she calls “poor soul,” reaped what he sowed for his actions in life. The religious woman offers advice for a pleasant and peaceful life, reminding humanity to “Love God and keep his commandments.”
    5. “Butch” Weldy  The fifth and final epitaph “‘Butch’ Weldy” concludes the “Minerva Jones” series. Butch declaims about his ordeal after a work related accident—with nary a nod to Minerva.

  • Edgar Lee Masters’ “Benjamin Fraser”

    Image: Edgar Lee Masters, Esq. https://librarycollections.law.umn.edu/darrow/trials_details.php?id=4 Clarence Darrow Law Library
    Image: Edgar Lee Masters, Esq. Clarence Darrow Law Library

    Edgar Lee Masters’ “Benjamin Fraser”

    In the epitaph titled “Benjamin Fraser” from Edgar Lee Masters’ Spoon River Anthology, the serial rapist/murderer is dramatizing his unsavory character.

    Introduction and Text of “Benjamin Fraser”

    Edgar Lee Masters has explained that “The Spooniad” is a mock heroic after Alexander Pope’s “The Dunciad.”  The Spooniad offers commentary on each of the Spoon River speakers who hold forth in Spoon River Anthology.

    From “The Spooniad” the reader learns that “Benjamin Fraser” was the “son of Benjamin Pantier / By Daisy Fraser,” which resulted in a lethal combination: the Pantiers’ dysfunctional relationship motivated Benjamin Pantier’s bedding the prostitute, Daisy Fraser, who gave birth to the criminally insane Benjamin Fraser.  (See the Pantier sequence beginning with “Benjamin Pantier” and “Mrs. Benjamin Pantier.” )

    Benjamin Fraser

    Their spirits beat upon mine
     Like the wings of a thousand butterflies.
    I closed my eyes and felt their spirits vibrating.
    I closed my eyes, yet I knew when their lashes 
    Fringed their cheeks from downcast eyes,
    And when they turned their heads;
    And when their garments clung to them, 
    Or fell from them, in exquisite draperies. 
    Their spirits watched my ecstasy 
    With wide looks at starry unconcern.
    Their spirits looked upon my torture; 
    They drank it as it were the water of life; 
    With reddened cheeks, brightened eyes 
    The rising flame of my soul made their spirits gilt, 
    Like the wings of a butterfly drifting suddenly into sunlight.
    And they cried to me for life, life, life. 
    But in taking life for myself, 
    In seizing and crushing their souls, 
    As a child crushes grapes and drinks 
    From its palms the purple juice,
    I came to this wingless void,
    Where neither red, nor gold, nor wine, 
    Nor the rhythm of life is known.

    Interpretive Reading of Benjamin Fraser

    Commentary on “Benjamin Fraser”

    The epitaph“Benjamin Fraser” from Masters’ Spoon River Anthology allows the serial rapist/murderer to dramatize his unsavory character.

    First Movement:   Twisted Imagination

    Their spirits beat upon mine
     Like the wings of a thousand butterflies.
    I closed my eyes and felt their spirits vibrating.
    I closed my eyes, yet I knew when their lashes 
    Fringed their cheeks from downcast eyes,
    And when they turned their heads;
    And when their garments clung to them, 
    Or fell from them, in exquisite draperies. 

    Benjamin Fraser reports that as he murdered and raped his victims their spirits were like butterflies.  Fraser enjoyed the acts of rape and murder intensely and considered the struggle for life of the victims as a play of souls. 

    Fraser’s victims’ souls leaving their bodies made the insane criminal think of them as the “wings of a thousand butterflies.”  He reports that he “closed his eyes and felt their spirits vibrating.”  

    And even with closed eyes, he knew they were frantically flailing about as “their lashes / Fringed their cheeks from downcast eyes.”  As their heads thrashed from side to side, he could sense that their clothes sometimes “clung to them” and at other times “fell from them, in exquisite draperies.”   In Fraser’s twisted imagination, his act becomes decorated in finery, instead of human despair and blood.

    Second Movement:   Appalling Acts

    Their spirits looked upon my torture; 
    They drank it as it were the water of life; 
    With reddened cheeks, brightened eyes 
    The rising flame of my soul made their spirits gilt, 
    Like the wings of a butterfly drifting suddenly into sunlight.
    And they cried to me for life, life, life. 

    The souls of these women “watched my ecstasy”; he imagines that his victims can discern the joy this perverted individual is experiencing as he rapes and kills them.  He lessens their agony in his own mind by calling their looks “starry unconcern.”  As he admits to torturing them, he converts their response to drinking “the water of life.”

    Fraser describes the face of his victim as he squeezes the life out of her: she has “reddened cheeks, brightened eyes”—those eyes would be filled with terror, but he perceives a different image; he visualizes, “The rising flame of my soul made their spirits gilt.”  His appalling act causes their souls to look all golden and again reminds him of butterflies “drifting suddenly into the sunlight.”  All the while, they are pleading “to me for life, life, life.”

    Third Movement:   A Loathsome Criminal

    But in taking life for myself, 
    In seizing and crushing their souls, 
    As a child crushes grapes and drinks 
    From its palms the purple juice,
    I came to this wingless void,
    Where neither red, nor gold, nor wine, 
    Nor the rhythm of life is known.

    Fraser becomes very vivid as he describes his act of strangulation; he asserts that he crushes their souls—he seizes and crushes them, likening his despicable act to a child smashing grapes to drink the fruit juice from the palm of his hand.

    The rapist/murderer cannot bring himself to confess that he is, in fact, squeezing the life out a human being’s physical body.  He does not accept his victim as a human being with personhood. To him they are just disembodied “spirits” that are ripe for his taking, seizing, and crushing.

    Benjamin Fraser’s final admission that through taking these lives, he has arrived at his present destination that he describes as a “wingless void,” a place where “neither red, nor gold, nor wine, / Nor the rhythm of life is known,” and he remains as detached as his conscience remained as he committed his loathsome crimes.

  • Edgar Lee Masters’  “Trainor, the Druggist”

    Image:  Edgar Lee Masters -  Alchetron https://alchetron.com/Edgar-Lee-Masters
    Image:  Edgar Lee Masters –  Alchetron

    Edgar Lee Master’  “Trainor, the Druggist”

    Trainor, the Druggist, offers an additional perspective on the Pantier marriage.

    Introduction and Text of “Trainor, the Druggist”

    Edgar Lee Masters’ “Trainor, the Druggist” from Spoon River Anthology offers a final installment covering the pitiful story of the Pantiers:  Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Pantier and their son, Reuben. 

    Trainor, the chemist/druggist, dramatizes his take on the Pantiers’ marriage as he philosophizes about how chemicals and personalities may combine to produce results unlike either of the components.

    Trainor, the Druggist

    Only the chemist can tell, and not always the chemist,
    What will result from compounding
    Fluids or solids.
    And who can tell
    How men and women will interact
    On each other, or what children will result?
    There were Benjamin Pantier and his wife,
    Good in themselves, but evil toward each other:
    He oxygen, she hydrogen,
    Their son, a devastating fire.
    I Trainor, the druggist, a mixer of chemicals,
    Killed while making an experiment,
    Lived unwedded.

    Interpretive Reading of “Trainor the Druggist” 

    Commentary on “Trainor, the Druggist”

    Edgar Lee Masters just could not let go of the Pantiers; in “Trainor, the Druggist,” yet another and final installment focusing on the couple is offered.

    First Movement:  Begins by Contradicting Himself

    Only the chemist can tell, and not always the chemist,
    What will result from compounding
    Fluids or solids.

    Trainor begins by remarking and somewhat contradicting himself about what a chemist can know.  He first states that “only” a chemist can know the results of combining certain substances, but he quickly adds that not even a chemist can “always” know the result of “compounding / Fluids and solids.”

    By using the substances “fluids and solids,” Trainor avoids sounding overly esoteric and confusing in his statement, although later he settles on the use of “oxygen” and “hydrogen” to express the natures of the Pantiers.

    Second Movement:  Who?  Indeed!

    And who can tell
    How men and women will interact
    On each other, or what children will result?

    Trainor then asks a rhetorical question, wondering who can ever predict how a certain man and a certain woman might react to their relationship.  He also wonders, “what children will result?”

    Of course, no one can know how any given couple will eventually grow in a relationship, and the possibilities are endless, as are the possibilities of the kinds of children that might spring from any given relationship.  The chemist can know how certain chemicals will react with each, but even the chemist will have to admit that many combinations have yet to be tried.

    Third Movement:  The Pantiers

    There were Benjamin Pantier and his wife,
    Good in themselves, but evil toward each other:
    He oxygen, she hydrogen,
    Their son, a devastating fire.

    In the third movement, Trainor focuses on the Pantiers, concluding that each was “good in themselves.”  But when they were bound in a relationship, they were “evil toward each other.”

    Trainor then likens Benjamin to “oxygen,” while Mrs. Benjamin was like “hydrogen.”  But the combination was, unfortunately, not in a useful proportion that would result, for example, in water; it was some combination that produces “fire.”  Trainor says, “Their son, a devastating fire.”

    Fourth Movement:  Trainor, Somewhat Ditzy

    I Trainor, the druggist, a mixer of chemicals,
    Killed while making an experiment,
    Lived unwedded.

    In the final movement, the reader learns that Trainor was killed while “making an experiment.”  As a “mixer of chemicals,” Trainor turns out to be incompetent, but he reports that he “lived unwedded,” which, to Trainor’s way of thinking, gives him at least a measure of pride of achievement.

    Of course, the reader will remember that Reuben Pantier turned his life around and was able to extinguish the “devastating fire” in himself—an eventuality that also underscores the incompetence of the druggist.

    The Pantier Sequence

    The five epigraphs that comprise the “Pantier Sequence”: 

    1.  Benjamin Pantier  A husband who appears to be weakling allowing himself to be cowed by his wife, an arrogant bully.
    2. Mrs. Benjamin Pantier  Unbridled arrogance, overweening vanity along with cowardly weakness have combined to bring about the destruction of the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Pantier.
    3. Reuben Pantier  Reuben Pantier’s colorful character helps dramatize the power of spiritual love for healing the mind, heart, and soul, even through the distance of miles and decades.  Reuben is the son of the dysfunctional couple Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Pantier.
    4. Emily Sparks  The epitaph is the fourth entry in the sequence of five epitaphs featuring a dysfunctional couple, their son, and the latter’s influential mentor.
    5.  Trainor, the Druggist  This epitaph offers a final installment covering the pitiful story of the Pantiers:  Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Pantier and their son Reuben.