WHAT'S HOT
Prev | Current Page 113 | Next

Masters, Edgar Lee, 1868-1950

"Spoon River Anthology"


But in those moments of tragic silence,
When the wine and bread were passed,
Came the reconciliation for us--
Us the ploughmen and the hewers of wood,
Us the peasants, brothers of the peasant of Galilee--
To us came the Comforter
And the consolation of tongues of flame!
Isaiah Beethoven
THEY told me I had three months to live,
So I crept to Bernadotte,
And sat by the mill for hours and hours
Where the gathered waters deeply moving
Seemed not to move:
O world, that's you!
You are but a widened place in the river
Where Life looks down and we rejoice for her
Mirrored in us, and so we dream And turn away, but when again
We look for the face, behold the low-lands
And blasted cotton-wood trees where we empty
Into the larger stream!
But here by the mill the castled clouds
Mocked themselves in the dizzy water;
And over its agate floor at night
The flame of the moon ran under my eyes
Amid a forest stillness broken
By a flute in a hut on the hill.
At last when I came to lie in bed
Weak and in pain, with the dreams about me,
The soul of the river had entered my soul,
And the gathered power of my soul was moving
So swiftly it seemed to be at rest
Under cities of cloud and under
Spheres of silver and changing worlds--
Until I saw a flash of trumpets
Above the battlements over Time.
Elijah Browning
I WAS among multitudes of children
Dancing at the foot of a mountain.


Pages:
101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124