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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: HENRY PHIPPS, by EDGAR LEE MASTERS Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: I was the sunday school superintendent Last Line: Moved me on with a push. Subject(s): Cancer (disease); Money | |||
I WAS the Sunday school superintendent, The dummy president of the wagon works And the canning factory, Acting for Thomas Rhodes and the banking clique; My son the cashier of the bank, Wedded to Rhodes' daughter, My week days spent in making money, My Sundays at church and in prayer. In everything a cog in the wheel of things-as-they-are: Of money, master and man, made white With the paint of the Christian creed. And then: The bank collapsed. I stood and looked at the wrecked machine -- The wheels with blow-holes stopped with putty and painted; The rotten bolts, the broken rods; And only the hopper for souls fit to be used again In a new devourer of life, when newspapers, judges and money-magicians Build over again. I was stripped to the bone, but I lay in the Rock of Ages, Seeing now through the game, no longer a dupe, And knowing "the upright shall dwell in the land But the years of the wicked shall be shortened." Then suddenly, Dr. Meyers discovered A cancer in my liver. I was not, after all, the particular care of God! Why, even thus standing on a peak Above the mists through which I had climbed, And ready for larger life in the world, Eternal forces Moved me on with a push. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE TRAVELLER by RANDALL JARRELL ART VS. TRADE by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON SONG FOR THE FIRST OF THE MONTH by DOROTHY PARKER SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: ALEXANDER THROCKMORTON by EDGAR LEE MASTERS |
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