Edgar Lee Master Spoon River Poem

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Edgar Lee Master’s Spoon River Anthology is a collection of free verse poems, each one told by a resident of the town of Spoon River. The style of these poems is significant because the lives of the residents intertwine, and each poem gives more insight into the next. There is a present theme of “Things are not always what they seem.” Additionally, the poems take on a dark tone in that all the residents are dead and telling their stories from the grave. This dark tone is also relevant in the messages from the residents, and it present from the first poem, “Petit, the Poet.” “And what is love but a rose that fades?” (Masters 8). This dark tone is again present in “Elsa Wertman.” Elsa gives up her baby to the wife of the man she had an affair

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