Spoon River Anthology - Penn State University
Spoon River Anthology - Penn State University
Spoon River Anthology - Penn State University
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
<strong>Spoon</strong> <strong>River</strong> <strong>Anthology</strong><br />
Harmon<br />
Whitney<br />
OUT of the lights and roar of cities,<br />
Drifting down like a spark in <strong>Spoon</strong> <strong>River</strong>,<br />
Burnt out with the fire of drink, and broken,<br />
The paramour of a woman I took in self-contempt,<br />
But to hide a wounded pride as well.<br />
To be judged and loathed by a village of little minds—<br />
I, gifted with tongues and wisdom,<br />
Sunk here to the dust of the justice court,<br />
A picker of rags in the rubbage of spites and wrongs,—<br />
I, whom fortune smiled on!<br />
I in a village,<br />
Spouting to gaping yokels pages of verse,<br />
Out of the lore of golden years,<br />
Or raising a laugh with a flash of filthy wit<br />
When they bought the drinks to kindle my dying mind.<br />
To be judged by you,<br />
The soul of me hidden from you,<br />
With its wound gangrened<br />
By love for a wife who made the wound,<br />
With her cold white bosom, treasonous, pure and hard,<br />
Relentless to the last, when the touch of her hand,<br />
At any time, might have cured me of the typhus,<br />
Caught in the jungle of life where many are lost.<br />
And only to think that my soul could not react,<br />
Like Byron’s did, in song, in something noble,<br />
But turned on itself like a tortured snake— judge me this way,<br />
O world.<br />
130