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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: JUDGE SOMERS by EDGAR LEE MASTERS

Poet Analysis

First Line: HOW DOES IT HAPPEN, TELL ME
Last Line: HAS SOWN A FLOWERING WEED?

HOW does it happen, tell me,
That I who was most erudite of lawyers,
Who knew Blackstone and Coke
Almost by heart, who made the greatest speech
The court-house ever heard, and wrote
A brief that won the praise of Justice Breese --
How does it happen, tell me,
That I lie here unmarked, forgotten,
While Chase Henry, the town drunkard,
Has a marble block, topped by an urn,
Wherein Nature, in a mood ironical,
Has sown a flowering weed?



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