Spoon River Anthology: Felix Schmidt–Hamlet Micure

In the past, a bonfire was lit to burn bones, but nowadays, it's often used as a signal or celebration. Here, the speaker emphasizes the positive reasons for lighting up (suggested by the separation of "bon" which means "good" in French and the use of the adjective "glorious"). However, the speaker's view is demented (note the last name), because he had set fire to a courthouse and delighted to see it burn.

A saprophyte is an organism, such as a mushroom or bacterium, that feeds on dead organic matter, such as animal carcasses or decayed plants. The speaker compares himself to this low form of life because 1) everyone, including Death, ignored him for years; and 2) he hated himself as much as he hated everyone for turning from him.

The participial adjective "festering" usually describes a physical sore that leaks pus. Here, it modifies "soul" and describes an unhealthily listless approach to life. The speaker uses other nearly synonymous adjectives and phrases ("ashamed," "drooped," "sickly cowardice" and "failed to fight it out") to describe Cully Green, whose death indirectly taught him how not to live.

Compare with "retaliation" in this list. The two words are related, as are the speakers, although the son wishes they had not been. The Latin root of "retaliation" suggests that it once had a positive tone that involved giving back the same payment one had received, but in his speech, the son warns of the nasty nature of revenge that can poison the happiness of a family and its future generations.

The adjective is used here to describe a gravestone. Applied to people, it means "having a humble opinion of yourself." In his thanks for the modest memorial, the speaker is not being modest. Rather, his focus on the size suggests that he feels he deserves more, especially since these "friends" had rejected him twice before he got famous. But he has the last laugh, because in honoring him and his theory about plant intelligence, they lose respect as a scientific association.

Compare with "despise" in the list for John M. Church-Carl Hamblin. There, "despise" focuses more on looking down on someone, while here, synonymous with "loathe," it has a stronger tone of deep hatred.

The Latin "spirare" means "to breathe." The pun on the verb is hinted at in earlier lines: "I seemed to be reaching the heights of art/And to breathe the air that the masters breathed." It can also be seen here: although the speaker has expired, he is trying to aspire in his grave towards a rebirth into a better place.

The soul of the speaker was diminished ("reduced in size or strength as a result of disease or injury"), but when his friend helped cure it, he felt diminished because "you saw my disease, you knew my secret." To avoid feeling diminished further, he diminished his thanks.

The Latin "nihil" means "nothing" and the example sentence connects more to that than to killing. The verb is used in a mostly positive tone, since love is doing the annihilating of time, space, and selves--a state that is preferable to a world of too many things and people among which the love had to be hidden. But the negative tone of the verb is also hinted at, since the two lovers end up making a pact to kill themselves.