Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: TRAINOR, THE DRUGGIST by EDGAR LEE MASTERS

Poet Analysis

First Line: ONLY THE CHEMIST CAN TELL, AND NOT ALWAYS THE CHEMIST
Last Line: LIVED UNWEDDED.

ONLY the chemist can tell, and not always the chemist,
What will result from compounding
Fluids or solids.
And who can tell
How men and women will interact
On each other, or what children will result?
There were Benjamin Pantier and his wife,
Good in themselves, but evil toward each other:
He oxygen, she hydrogen,
Their son, a devastating fire.
I Trainor, the druggist, a mixer of chemicals,
Killed while making an experiment,
Lived unwedded.



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