Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters

Griffy the Cooper, during his life his occupation was dealing with tubs. He knew

about them, but as he says, He learned a lot more from life and death than just tubs. He

talks about how people think they are worldly, that they know much about life. He uses

the phrase "You think your eye sweeps about a wide horizon, perhaps." By which he

means you think you have much knowledge, or that you see the whole picture. He says

though, that we don't know as much as we think we do. A person doesn't really

understand what life is until he died. The poem poses many question about life, such as

how much can one person understand, are there theological ideas that we can't grasp as

mortals of flesh? Will we be able to understand them in the afterlife, if there is one. My

favorite line of the poem is "In truth you are only looking around the interior of your tub."

This is very meaningful because it sums up the whole poem. It means that what you think

you're looking at isn't always what you think it is. For example a person might think they

are looking at one thing but it could be totally different than what they think. Another

aspect of the poem that is good is that, Griffy the Cooper talks to people like they are

listening, for example when he says, "And you who loiter around these graves think you

know life."

The reason I picked this poem, was for several reasons. One was that all the other

poems that I really wanted were ones we were restricted not to do. Secondly, I chose this

poem because, I thought it had a really good point that many people never think about let

alone understand. Most people especially around 16 through 18 years old feel like they

know everything, but as you grow up, you learn more and more.