Thoughts of Spoon River

The epitaph of Mrs Benjamin Pantier gives us pause for thought. It is, to say the least, problematical. She claims, for instance, that her husband has probably already told us that “all the men loved him” and “most of the women pitied him”. But, of course, Benjamin Pantier told us no such thing! Was she, then, so oblivious of her husband?   It would be so easy to condemn her out of hand for her seemingly dismissive attitude toward her husband. He is probably entitled to his feeling of being discarded like so much waste.   This is where we should pause and ponder. What Benjamin Pantier did tell us was that he had been an attorney at law, with some aspiration and achievement behind him. And then he married a “well-endowed” woman.   To our modern ears, this phrase may have particular connotations regarding a woman’s physical charms. In the latter part of the nineteenth-century/early twentieth-century, it is unlikely a woman of respectable upbringing would so de...

We have already seen, in the marriage of the McGee’s, that the state of matramony is no heaven-sent blessing. We should not be unduly surprised, then, at the state of play between the Pantiers - that Benjamin has been driven from his own house by a wife who finds him disgusting. The soap opera that is the series of poems dealing with the Pantiers would appear bathetic, coming straight after Kinsey Keene’s inspiring call to arms against all that corrupts the heart of Spoon River, if not for one simple fact. The series of five poems makes clear for us, firstly, that the grossest kinds of corruption lie in the hearts of ordinary men and women, not just the high officials of the town. Yet, they further reveal, there is hope that the most wanton wastrel may be brought to change his ways if only those who believe remain faithful. And, finally, we are shown that it is not the Anthology’s organisation that results in bathos; it is life itself. Benjamin Pantier, then, is guilty of not...

A couple of poems ago, Harry Carey Goodhue looked nothing but pathetic for declaring his various fights with bank and court-house, leading citizens and business men. So, what to make of Kinsey Keene, who, without specifying any particular battle - apart from one in which he did not participate - claims a legendary slogan for his stone? And does it matter that the words were likely never spoken? Certainly they were not spoken as dying words, or even words uttered just prior to battle? Does it matter that Cambronne was not even with the Guard when it died, already having been taken prisoner by Colonel Hugh Halkett? That, in fact, Cambronne died in England as a prisoner of war? (cf. ‘ Cambronne’s Words ’)   Whatever words were or were not spoken, and we can’t really expect Edgar Lee Masters to do anything but accept the legend, the sentiment is obvious - Keene would have us believe that whatever struggles he engaged in are to be likened to the glorious defeat of the Guard ...