Spoon River Anthology: The Spooniad–The End

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. strife
    bitter conflict; heated or violent dissension
    Of John Cabanis, wrath and of the strife
    Of hostile parties, and his dire defeat
    Who led the common people in the cause
    Of freedom for Spoon River
  2. hecatomb
    a great sacrifice
    Sing, muse, that lit the Chian's face with smiles
    Who saw the ant-like Greeks and Trojans crawl
    About Scamander, over walls, pursued
    Or else pursuing, and the funeral pyres
    And sacred hecatombs
    This invocation to a muse alludes to "The Iliad"--the classical Greek epic about heroes and gods in the Trojan War. "The Spooniad" focuses on ordinary people in a conflict about freedom that pitted drinkers and dancers against the church and bankers. There were no great sacrifices and there was nothing noble about the AD blood spilled here.
  3. cunning
    crafty artfulness, especially in deception
    Her bracelets tinkling and with sparkling rings
    And words of serpent wisdom and a smile
    Of cunning in her eyes.
  4. condemn
    express strong disapproval of
    And all Spoon River whispered and the eyes
    Of all the church frowned on her, till she knew
    They feared her and condemned.
  5. flout
    treat with contemptuous disregard
    But them to flout
    She gave a dance to viols and to flutes
  6. fastidious
    giving careful attention to detail
    And chests were opened for their store of laces
    And rings and trinkets were brought out of hiding
    And all the youths fastidious grew of dress
  7. supine
    apathetic or weak; offering no resistance
    Whether to lie supine and let a clique
    Cold-blooded, scheming, hungry, singing psalms,
    Devour our substance, wreck our banks and drain
    Our little hoards
  8. jocund
    full of or showing high-spirited merriment
    Shall we have music and the jocund dance,
    Or tolling bells?
  9. libertine
    a dissolute person
    Shall we submit to have these youths and maids
    Branded as libertines and wantons?
  10. defiance
    a hostile challenge
    then rang the hall
    With riotous laughter, for with battered hat
    Tilted upon her saucy head, and fist
    Raised in defiance, Daisy Fraser stood.
  11. salve
    apply ointment to, usually for the purpose of healing
    I wish to God this fight were now inspired
    By other passion than to salve the pride
    Of John Cabanis or his daughter.
  12. denial
    renunciation of one's own interests in favor of others
    Still, if men
    Must always act so, and if rum must be
    The symbol and the medium to release
    From life's denial and from slavery,
    Then give me rum!
  13. exultant
    joyful and proud especially because of triumph or success
    Exultant cries arose.
  14. vacillation
    indecision in speech or action
    Then, as George Trimble had o'ercome his fear
    And vacillation and begun to speak,
    The door creaked
  15. reign
    be larger in power, status, or importance
    But in the hall
    Disorder reigned and when the marshal came
    And found it so, he marched the hoodlums out
    And locked them up.
  16. hostile
    characterized by enmity or ill will
    when from their hasty beds
    Poured forth the hostile forces, and the streets
    Resounded to the rattle of the wheels
    That drove this way and that to gather in
    The tardy voters, and the cries of chieftains
    Who manned the battle.
  17. degenerate
    unrestrained by convention or morality
    No man of this degenerate day could lift
    The boulders which he threw
  18. commission
    charge with a task
    Thus he came,
    The champion of A. D. Blood, commissioned
    To terrify the liberals.
  19. countenance
    the appearance conveyed by a person's face
    But when the hog-eyed one
    Saw Bengal Mike his countenance grew dark,
    The bristles o'er his red eyes twitched with rage
  20. lumber
    move heavily or clumsily
    Come, elephant, and fight! Come, hog-eyed coward!
    Come, face about and fight me, lumbering sneak!
  21. invulnerable
    immune to attack; impregnable
    And Bengal Mike
    Moved this way and now that, drew in his head
    As if his neck to shorten, and bent down
    To break the death grip of the hog-eyed one;
    'Twixt guttural wrath and fast-expiring strength
    Striking his fists against the invulnerable chest
    Of hog-eyed Allen.
  22. valiant
    having or showing heroism or courage
    Then, when some came in
    To part them, others stayed them, and the fight
    Spread among dozens; many valiant souls
    Went down from clubs and bricks.
  23. lamentation
    a cry of sorrow and grief
    so fell the hog-eyed one
    Amid the lamentations of the friends
    Of A. D. Blood
  24. pall
    lose strength or effectiveness
    Just then, four lusty men
    Bore the town marshal, on whose iron face
    The purple pall of death already lay
    The definition is for a verb, but the word is used as a noun and is meant to be synonymous with "pallor" ("unnatural lack of color in the skin"). A pall could also be "a sudden numbing dread"--the marshal's normally iron face could be showing a fear of his upcoming death.
  25. laureate
    someone honored for great achievements
    The late Mr. Jonathan Swift Somers, laureate of Spoon River planned The Spooniad as an epic in twenty-four books, but unfortunately did not live to complete even the first book.
    Aside from the name of the fictional poet, which alludes to the satirical author of "Gulliver's Travels" and is a visual twist on Homer, this line is a joke because 1) being the laureate of Spoon River is not a great achievement; 2) there is no mention of any great achievement in the poet's speech from the dead--only of enriching his soul through thought, suffering, other people's books, and a supreme vision, which can be assumed to be the plan for the epic he never finished.
Created on Fri Feb 20 16:23:51 EST 2015 (updated Tue Apr 09 14:53:18 EDT 2019)

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