Spoon River Anthology: Editor Whedon–Seth Compton

The chosen definition makes the word synonymous with one of the meanings of "wanton" (see list for John M. Church-Carl Hamblin). "Promiscuous" also means "not selective of a single class or person" (the Latin "miscere" means "to mix"). Both can fit here, since the adjective comes after "continent" (which means having control over yourself, especially bodily functions) and a list of many types of personalities and lifestyles the speaker had tried.

The speaker was a drunk. This example sentence emphasizes that with the verb "stagger" and the adjective "hazy" (which the speaker thinks is due to fog in the sky but really is the fogginess of his eyes). The speaker also confesses his drunkenness through these descriptions of his movements: "I reeled through a gate and into a yard" and "I stood there weaving to and fro."

A divine dispensation is "an appointment, arrangement, or favor from God." At first, the speaker did not see his marriage this way, and he tried to dispense with it ("set aside, discard, or do without"). He would've been happy with another religious act of dispensation: "an exemption from some rule or obligation." But having run away for a year and returned to his wife's tears and kisses, he concluded that his marriage had the support of God, so he stuck with it until death.

Compare with "inexorable" in the list for The Town Marshal-Franklin Jones. The adjectives are synonymously used to describe characters who would not listen to pleas for mercy. "Relentless" can also describe a person who never stops doing, being, or pursuing something. Both meanings fit the wife, who was always cold to the speaker, and who did not help him recover from a curable disease (typhus is transmitted by lice and has symptoms of rash and fever).

The example sentence and chosen definition connect to a positive quality that the speaker could be proud of. But the noun also means "an identifying difference." This definition, with a negative connotation, is suggested by the whispers. The speaker made his fortune through a shady vote-selling deal with the railroad that brought noise and dirt to Chicago. This gave his daughters a distinction that drove them to marry madly and go where others would not know their family.

The saloon owners are casually disrespectful of Spoon River because they live far enough away to make a profit without being affected by its drunkenness. They are also "unrestrained by convention or propriety." The speaker (whose last name is the moral-sounding Godbey) connects libertarians to saloon owners to promiscuity. This is emphasized by the image of Liberty as a strumpet ("a woman adulterer") selling out to the insolent giants.

Here, "azure" does not refer only to a bluish or purplish color, but also to 1) the skies, which represent heights of happiness; 2) royalty, which is suggested by the image of life as a queen-bee; and 3) wealth, which is suggested by the image of a feast in a banquet room; it is also suggested by the word's original connection to lapis lazuli (a blue semiprecious stone).

The varnish literally refers to the coating on the mill to make it shine. It also figuratively refers to the wealth of the speaker that allowed him to collect machines. But as the speaker emphasizes here, varnish and wealth mean nothing if they are not supported by actual use (notice the pun in his first name "Abel").

As a verb, "dredge" means to "search the bottom of a body of water for something valuable." This could apply to what the speaker did: she looked all over Spoon River for work, until she came to a mansion, where the rich son winked at her and unlocked the opportunity to become the envisioned dredge that cut the house and gave her half.