Edgar Lee Masters (Эдгар Ли Мастерс)

Amos Sibley


Not character, not fortitude, not patience
Were mine, the which the village thought I had
In bearing with my wife, while preaching on,
Doing the work God chose for me.
I loathed her as a termagant, as a wanton.
I knew of her adulteries, every one.
But even so, if I divorced the woman
I must forsake the ministry.
Therefore to do God’s work and have it crop,
I bore with her!
So lied I to myself!
So lied I to Spoon River!
Yet I tried lecturing, ran for the legislature,
Canvassed for books, with just the thought in mind:
If I make money thus, I will divorce her.

Edgar Lee Masters’s other poems:

  1. Clarence Darrow
  2. Ernest Hyde
  3. Mrs. Kessler
  4. Dippold the Optician
  5. Elmer Karr

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