Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: LUCINDA MATLOCK, by EDGAR LEE MASTERS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: LUCINDA MATLOCK, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: I went to the dances at chandlerville
Last Line: It takes life to love life.
Variant Title(s): Lucinda Matlock
Subject(s): Death - Mothers; Dead, The


I went to the dances at Chandlerville,
And played snap-out at Winchester.
One time we changed partners,
Driving home in the moonlight of middle June,
And then I found Davis.
We were married and lived together for seventy years,
Enjoying, working, raising the twelve children,
Eight of whom we lost
Ere I had reached the age of sixty.
I spun, I wove, I kept the house, I nursed the sick,
I made the garden, and for holiday
Rambled over the fields where sang the larks,
And by Spoon River gathering many a shell,
And many a flower and medicinal weed --
Shouting to the wooded hills, singing to the green valleys,
At ninety-six I had lived enough, that is all,
And passed to a sweet repose.
What is this I hear of sorrow and weariness,
Anger, discontent and drooping hopes?
Degenerate sons and daughters,
Life is too strong for you --
It takes life to love life.






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