Thoughts of Spoon River

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...