Thoughts of Spoon River

And so the final poem in the ‘Chase Henry Trilogy’. Chase Henry accepted his role as "town drunkard" and warned the Protestants, those "prudent and pious souls", of achieving, in a sense, the Devil's own goals for the sake of crossing the Catholics. Harry Carey Goodhue, in like manner to the Protestants, would have his legacy recognised as one thing while, in actual fact, leaving behind something else altogether different. And now we have Judge Somers, the "most erudite of lawyers" and maker of "the greatest speech / The court-house ever heard", lying in an unmarked grave, his life not having produced the rewards he thought it he deserved. Chase Henry recognises that he benefitted from the rivalry that exists between the Protestants and the Catholics but is not into thinking himself other than he really was. He is well aware that he "lived in shame" and his good fortune was not earned. In answer to Judge Somers' question, ...

There is nothing quite so noble as a man willing to put himself on the line for others or for a cause: Socrates willing to die for his beliefs, Mahatma Gandhi’s non-violent movement for the independence of India, Dietrich Bonhoeffer consistently outspoken against the Nazis, Martin Luther King’s stand for civil rights. Such men stand as inspiration for the generations who come after them and an admonition to those of us not of their stature. Does Harry Carey Goodhue have a place among this pantheon of nobel men? He tells us that he fought the good fight, standing against the “bank and the courthouse ring” who would pocket the “interest on public funds”, the “leading citizens” who made “the poor the pack-horses of the taxes”, and the “water works” for “stealing streets and raising rates”. Certainly, these are fights in need of fighting! Somehow, though, we are left with the feeling that, despite his struggles, Goodhue fails to earn his place in history. There is just something not ...

I wonder just how we’re supposed to feel about Chase Henry? He was the “town drunkard” and seemingly quite proud of his place in the civic structure of Spoon River. And hugely tickled by his getting one over the “prudent and pious souls” symbolised here by the Catholic Church. How are we to feel about Chase Henry? To a certain extent, at least, we can’t help but feel a little bit tickled right along with him. To admit to a certain guilty pleasure at Chase’s one-upping the Catholic Church is one thing, to draw some deep philosophical meaning out of the circumstances is another. That Chase Henry would wish his burial next to the banker and his wife to have significance is only natural in a man who lived as a wastrel. This being Spoon River, however, we at least need to consider the real lesson to be learned. It could be, of course, as simple as the quartet of poems just encountered, previous to this one - a character lying in the womb of the earth, pointing a bony finger, either at...