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Every story, poem, or anthology alike has a part of the author’s feelings or past between their lines, which dictates their origins. The Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters is not anything different in that regard. Every piece of writing has it’s origins and those origins can be not only interesting, but change the way the reader views the writing. This paper will not only discuss the origins of the famous Anthology, but show Edgar Lee Masters’ personal side of the origins and how those instances influenced his writing of The Spoon River Anthology. Edgar Lee Masters was born on August 23, 1868 on a Kansas prairie and grew up in two small Illinois cities named Lewistown and Petersburg. “... Masters was firmly rooted in the Midwestern society he both praised and criticized in Spoon River Anthology” (“Edgar Lee Masters”). Due to financial problems, Masters couldn’t complete college but he studied law under his father. He was a lawyer in Chicago for 30 years. Within those years, he began to write poetry and …show more content…
“Masters modeled the Anthology on a collection of ancient Greek short poems and sayings (called the) The Greek Anthology” (Costello). When writing the Anthology, Masters wrote himself in as many different names. “Masters wrote himself into the Spoon River Anthology not only as ‘Webster Ford,’ his pseudonym for the magazine publication of the Anthology, but in a number of other epitaphs as well” (Hurt). This shows his personal attribution to his works. James Hurt writes: “Masters himself repeatedly made clear that the composition of the Spoon River Anthology coincided with the most important psychological crisis in his life and that the epitaphs were both an expression of that crisis and a means of working through it … The characters in the Anthology were not the products of ordinary memory or nostalgia, but Masters' own ghosts, internalized images
With the coming of the new century America under goes a change led by many different events. The collection of poems written in Lee Masters book Spoon River Anthology portrays the typical small town at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. Show the different social, economical, and political trend and influences throughout the United States.
The Norton Anthology: American Literature, Volume A: Beginning to 1820. New York City: Norton & Comany, 2007.
A writer’s choice of nouns and verbs alters the feel and meaning of a poem. A prime expel of this fact is in the Crowder Collage literature book, on page even hundred seventy-three, more topics for writing, number two. I chose the poem “When the Time’s Toxins,” by Christian Wiman, for the exercise.
In traditional writing styles, the main element to give the story meaning is the narrative itself. However, with more modern and distinct styles such as the short stories written where the narrative is no longer the primary stylistic device, but the use of metaphors and distinctive different narrators applies meaning to the stories. Though it is easy to judge what is different from tradition as inferior, this change is no different than the rise of cubism in the art world. Even though initially many would comment on the art not being “real,” or in this case, the stories being poorly written, this style has even more of an effect. After
The major poets of the early twentieth century tended to reflect in their poetry elements of the rural, agrarian society in which they lived, much of their work focused on traditional American values and yet foreshadowed the changing character of America, hinting at the factors that ushered the changes of the twentieth century: war, urbanization, technological development, increased mobility, and the emergence of minority voices in culture. Edgar Lee Masters indited 243 poems about the people buried in the Spoon River?s Cemetery, which is where the poem Lucinda Matlock came from. Each character speaks from the grave about his own epigraph.
Everyone wonders what happens when you become deceased. What if you had the chance to write an epitaph for people to remember you by? Everyone in Spoon River had the opportunity to express their feelings, opinions, and views. In Spoon River Anthology, By Edgar Lee Masters: and my favorite life-themed epitaphs included, Lucinda Matlock, Griffy the Cooper, and Decan Taylor.
69. Print. Strand, Mark, and Eavan Boland. The Making of a Poem: a Norton Anthology of Poetic
Meinke, Peter. “Untitled” Poetry: An Introduction. Ed. Michael Meyer. 6th ed. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s 2010. 89. Print
Short stories are temporary portals to another world; there is a plethora of knowledge to learn from the scenario, and lies on top of that knowledge are simple morals. Langston Hughes writes in “Thank You Ma’m” the timeline of a single night in a slum neighborhood of an anonymous city. This “timeline” tells of the unfolding generosities that begin when a teenage boy fails an attempted robbery of Mrs. Jones. An annoyed bachelor on a British train listens to three children their aunt converse rather obnoxiously in Saki’s tale, “The Storyteller”. After a failed story attempt, the bachelor tries his hand at storytelling and gives a wonderfully satisfying, inappropriate story. These stories are laden with humor, but have, like all other stories, an underlying theme. Both themes of these stories are “implied,” and provide an excellent stage to compare and contrast a story on.
...thern Literary Journal. Published by: University of North Carolina Press. Vol. 4, No. 2 (spring, 1972), pp. 128-132.
Poems, Poets, Poetry: An Introduction and Anthology. 3rd ed. Ed. Helen Vendler. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s,
The "Langston Hughes" Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. The Web. The Web. 03 Dec. 2013.
it related to his own life and the events going on around him at the
Strand, Mark and Evan Boland. The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms. New
Brooks, Cleanth. The Well Wrought Urn: Studies of the Structure of Poetry. London: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1947.