Classic and Contemporary Poetry
SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: EUGENE CARMAN, by EDGAR LEE MASTERS Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Rhodes' slave! Selling shoes and gingham Last Line: From a broken vein in my head. Subject(s): Social Protest | ||||||||
RHODES' slave! Selling shoes and gingham, Flour and bacon, overalls, clothing, all day long For fourteen hours a day for three hundred and thirteen days For more than twenty years. Saying "Yes'm" and "Yes, sir" and "Thank you" A thousand times a day, and all for fifty dollars a month. Living in this stinking room in the rattle-trap "Commercial." And compelled to go to Sunday School, and to listen To the Rev. Abner Peet one hundred and four times a year For more than an hour at a time, Because Thomas Rhodes ran the church As well as the store and the bank. So while I was tying my neck-tie that morning I suddenly saw myself in the glass: My hair all gray, my face like a sodden pie. So I cursed and cursed: You damned old thing! You cowardly dog! You rotten pauper! You Rhodes' slave! Till Roger Baughman Thought I was having a fight with some one, And looked through the transom just in time To see me fall on the floor in a heap From a broken vein in my head. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A SONG FOR MANY MOVEMENTS by AUDRE LORDE NAT BACON'S BONES by ARCHIBALD MACLEISH ALL LIFE IN A LIFE by EDGAR LEE MASTERS VICARIOUS ATONEMENT by RICHARD ALDINGTON TOWARD THE JURASSIC AGE by CLARIBEL ALEGRIA IN GEORGETOWN; HOLIDAY INN, WASHINGTON, D.C. by HAYDEN CARRUTH THE AFTERLIFE: LETTER TO STEPHEN DOBYNS: 1 by HAYDEN CARRUTH SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: ALEXANDER THROCKMORTON by EDGAR LEE MASTERS |
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