When Reuben Pantier Ran Away and Threw Me

Name: ______Period: _____

SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY (excerpts) by Edgar Lee Masters Please define the following vocabulary words on the back of the handout: DORA WILLIAMS When Reuben Pantier ran away and threw me -Magnate I went to Springfield. There I met a lush, -Loathe Whose father just deceased left him a fortune. -Subtle He married me when drunk. My life was wretched. -Insidious A year passed and one day they found him dead. -Nativity That made me rich. I moved on to Chicago. -Dandies After a time met Tyler Rountree, villain. I moved on to New York. A gray-haired magnate Went mad about me—so another fortune. He died one night right in my arms, you know. (I saw his purple face for years thereafter.) There was almost a scandal. I moved on, This time to Paris. I was now a woman, Insidious, subtle, versed in the world and rich. My sweet apartment near the Champs Elysees1 Became a center for all sorts of people, Musicians, poets, dandies, artists, nobles, Where we spoke French and German, Italian, English. I wed Count Navigato, native of Genoa. We went to Rome. He poisoned me, I think. Now in the Campo Santo2 overlooking The sea where young Columbus dreamed new worlds, See what they chiseled: “Contessa Navigato Implora eterna quiete3”

ARCHIBALD HIGBIE I loathed you, Spoon River. I tried to rise above You, I was ashamed of you. I despised you As the place of my nativity. And there in Rome, among the artists, Speaking Italian, speaking French, I seemed to myself at times to be free Of every trace of my origin. I seemed to be reaching the heights of art And to breathe the air that the masters breathed, And to see the world with their eyes. But still they’d pass my work and say: “What are you driving at, my friend? Sometimes the face looks like Apollo’s4, At others it has a trace of Lincoln’s.” There was no culture, you know, in Spoon River, And I burned with shame and held my peace. And what could I do, all covered over And weighted down with western soil, Except aspire, and pray for another Birth in the world, with all of Spoon River Rooted out of my soul?

1 A famous avenue in Paris 2 A famous cemetery in Pisa, Italy 3 “Countess Navigato begs for everlasting rest.” 4 Apollo was the Greek God of poetry and music How does Dora Williams seem to exemplify the Naturalist perspective on love and marriage?

In Masters poem, “Dora Williams,” is the literary technique of situational irony being employed? Explain.

Archibald Higbie is the first voice that despises the town of Spoon River? Why? How has his birth effective his life? How does ALL of this tie back to Naturalism?