Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: CASSIUS HUEFFER, by EDGAR LEE MASTERS



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SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: CASSIUS HUEFFER, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: They have chiseled on my stone the words
Last Line: Graven by a fool!


THEY have chiseled on my stone the words:
"His life was gentle, and the elements so mixed in him
That nature might stand up and say to all the world,
This was a man."
Those who knew me smile
As they read this empty rhetoric.

My epitaph should have been:
"Life was not gentle to him,
And the elements so mixed in him
That he made warfare on life,
In the which he was slain."
While I lived I could not cope with slanderous tongues,
Now that I am dead I must submit to an epitaph
Graven by a fool!





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