Spoon River Anthology: Mabel Osborne–Webster Ford

by Edgar Lee Masters
Edgar Lee Masters haunts the local residents of towns in which he grew up with more than 200 poetic portraits that are eerily familiar. Speaking from their graves, the characters reveal, confess, accuse, and advise. Bury yourself in this list to see what they are shoveling out. Read the full text here.

Here are links to our lists for the 1915 version of the anthology: The Hill-Theodore the Poet, The Town Marshal-Franklin Jones, John M. Church-Carl Hamblin, Editor Whedon-Seth Compton, Felix Schmidt-Hamlet Micure, Mabel Osborne-Webster Ford, The Spooniad-The End
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. wither
    lose freshness, vigor, or vitality
    I who loved you, Spoon River,
    And craved your love,
    Withered before your eyes, Spoon River
    The example sentence is nearly identical to this one: "You who knew and saw me perish before you." In both, the speaker compares herself to a flower that dies from neglect. She develops this simile with descriptive images, but the verb "wither" by itself also emphasizes the comparison: it is connected to "weather" and describes what can happen to plants that are exposed to a lack of rain or extreme heat.
  2. decline
    a condition inferior to an earlier condition
    There by the window in the old house
    Perched on the bluff, overlooking miles of valley,
    My days of labor closed, sitting out life's decline
  3. fathom
    come to understand
    What was it in their eyes?—
    For I could never fathom
    That mystical pathos of drooped eyelids,
    And the serene sorrow of their eyes.
  4. discharge
    free from obligations or duties
    I wrote him a letter asking him for old times' sake
    To discharge my sick boy from the army
  5. repose
    freedom from activity
    At ninety-six I had lived enough, that is all,
    And passed to a sweet repose.
  6. immortal
    not subject to death
    Well, I say to live it out like a god
    Sure of immortal life, though you are in doubt,
    Is the way to live it.
  7. glean
    gather, as of natural products
    But on a sunny afternoon,
    By a country road,
    Where purple rag-weeds bloom along a straggling fence
    And the field is gleaned, and the air is still
    To see against the sun-light something black
    Like a blot with an iris rim
  8. abstain
    refrain from doing, consuming, or partaking in something
    It is well to abstain from murder and lust,
    To forgive, do good to others, worship God
    Without graven images.
  9. efficacy
    capacity or power to produce a desired result
    Instead of believing in the efficacy
    Of walking cracks, picking up pins the right way,
    Seeing the new moon over the right shoulder,
    Or curing rheumatism with blue glass,
    I asserted the sovereignty of my own soul.
    The definition of the noun sounds positive, but in the example sentence, the speaker connects it negatively to superstitious beliefs in the powers of certain actions to bring about unrelated effects. In contrast, he proudly connects himself to the word "sovereignty" (which includes the Latin root for "king"), to declare that he has power over his own soul.
  10. industry
    persevering determination to perform a task
    All read with rapturous industry
    Hoping it was reserved to me
    To grasp the tail of the ultimate secret,
    And drag it out of its hole.
  11. umbrageous
    filled with shade
    I who kept the greenhouse,
    Lover of trees and flowers,
    Oft in life saw this umbrageous elm,
    Measuring its generous branches with my eye
  12. sexton
    an officer of the church who is in charge of sacred objects
    It is dying at the top:
    Not from lack of life, nor fungus,
    Nor destroying insect, as the sexton thinks.
  13. converse
    carry on a discussion
    I, lover of Nature, beloved for my love of her,
    Held such converse afar with the great
    Who knew her better than I.
    The definition is for a verb, but the word is used as a noun in the example sentence. The converse the speaker held with other Nature lovers was through letters. As an adjective, "converse" means "turned about in order or relation" but this does not apply here. Conversely, William Jones is in harmony with everything and everyone in life and death (which makes him converse to many characters in the anthology).
  14. zeal
    excessive fervor to do something or accomplish some end
    You should understand I sought the way
    With earnest zeal, and all my wanderings
    Were wanderings in the quest.
  15. distinguish
    mark as different
    But when its sound was mingled
    With the sound of the Methodist, the Christian,
    The Baptist and the Congregational,
    I could no longer distinguish it,
    Nor any one from the others, or either of them.
  16. lambent
    softly bright or radiant
    These sudden flashes in your soul,
    Like lambent lightning on snowy clouds
    At midnight when the moon is full.
  17. livery
    the care of horses for pay
    I lived in the livery stable,
    Sleeping on the floor
    Side by side with Roger Baughman's bulldog,
    Or sometimes in a stall.
  18. congregation
    group that habitually attends a particular place of worship
    In April days in this cemetery
    The dead people gathered all about me,
    And grew still, like a congregation in silent prayer.
  19. residue
    something left after other parts have been taken away
    They called me the weakling, the simpleton,
    For my brothers were strong and beautiful,
    While I, the last child of parents who had aged,
    Inherited only their residue of power.
  20. contentious
    showing an inclination to disagree
    I who lie here was the village atheist,
    Talkative, contentious, versed in the arguments
    Of the infidels.
  21. alienate
    arouse hostility or indifference in
    Then, as I grew weaker, a terror came over me:
    Perhaps I had alienated God by cursing him.
  22. continual
    occurring without interruption
    And I saw how a god, if brought to earth,
    Must act out what he saw and thought,
    And could not live in this world of men
    And act among them side by side
    Without continual clashes.
  23. lore
    knowledge gained through tradition or anecdote
    But now that my grave is honored, friends,
    Let it not be because I taught
    The lore of the stars in Knox College,
    But rather for this: that through the stars
    I preached the greatness of man
  24. trifling
    not worth considering
    Wherever I went, with messages,—
    Mere trifling twaddle, Spoon River agreed.
    Twaddle is "pretentious or silly talk or writing" so the adjective "trifling" seems unnecessary. But without it, the insult would not sound as strong. Also, as a verb, "trifle" means "to waste time" and this is suggested by the speaker's description of how she "in an idle mood" was playing with the Ouija board.
  25. kindred
    group of people related by blood or marriage
    And after the faces of friends and kindred
    Become as faded photographs, pitifully silent,
    Sad for the look which means:
    "We cannot help you."
  26. reproach
    express criticism towards
    And after you no longer reproach mankind
    With being in league against your soul's uplifted hands
  27. disdain
    look down on with contempt
    I knew of the eagle souls that flew high in the sunlight,
    Above the spire of the church, and laughed at the church,
    Disdaining me, not seeing me.
  28. intimate
    marked by close acquaintance, association, or familiarity
    Some beautiful soul that lived life strongly
    And knew you all through, and loved you ever,
    Who would not fail to speak for you,
    And give God an intimate view of your soul
  29. immanent
    inherent; existing or remaining within
    And all was silence, except the splendor
    Was immanent with thought as clear
    As a speaking voice
  30. splendor
    the quality of being magnificent or grand
    Out of the mud many times
    Before many doors of light
    Through many fields of splendor,
    Where around your steps a soundless glory scatters
    Like new-fallen snow
  31. dauntless
    invulnerable to fear or intimidation
    Oh, you young radicals and dreamers,
    You dauntless fledglings
    Who pass by my headstone,
    Mock not its record of my captaincy in the army
    And my faith in God!
  32. precipice
    a very steep cliff
    Over the precipice they were nearing,
    And fell from his back in precipitate awe
    "Precipice" and "precipitate" both come from the Latin roots "pre" which means "before" and "caput" which means "head." Here, the image is of falling from a galloping horse's back off a cliff in a manner that is headlong or precipitate ("at breakneck speed" or "in a hasty and foolhardy manner").
  33. concord
    a harmonious state of things and of their properties
    Surely the concord that ruled my spirit is proof
    Of an Ear that tuned me, able to tune me over
    And use me again if I am worthy to use.
  34. gird
    bind with something round or circular
    And there was I with my spirit girded
    By the flesh half dead, the senses numb
    Yet thinking of youth and the earth in youth
  35. reconciliation
    the reestablishment of cordial relations
    But in those moments of tragic silence,
    When the wine and bread were passed,
    Came the reconciliation for us
    The last name of the speaker (Hatfield) hints at hostile human relationships that need reconciliation. But the focus of the example sentence is on religious reconciliation, where humans repair their relationship with God by sharing his blood and body (the wine and bread), and confessing and repenting their sins.
  36. rejoice
    feel happiness
    You are but a widened place in the river
    Where Life looks down and we rejoice for her
    Mirrored in us, and so we dream
  37. multitude
    a large indefinite number
    I was among multitudes of children
    Dancing at the foot of a mountain.
  38. ethereal
    of heaven or the spirit
    For the spent waves of the symphony of freedom
    Lapped the ethereal cliffs about me.
  39. burgeon
    grow and flourish
    When I seemed to be turned to a tree with trunk and branches
    Growing indurate, turning to stone, yet burgeoning
    In laurel leaves, in hosts of lambent laurel
  40. grisly
    shockingly repellent; inspiring horror
    and choose you must
    'Twixt death in the flame and death after years of sorrow,
    Rooted fast in the earth, feeling the grisly hand
Created on Fri Feb 20 16:17:05 EST 2015 (updated Tue Apr 09 14:52:27 EDT 2019)

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