Edgar Lee Masters

Spoon River Anthology (Annotated) Edgar Lee Masters

Differentiated book- It has a historical context with research of the time-Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters. The purpose of realizing this historical context is to approach the understanding of a historical epoch from the elements provided by the text. Hence the importance of placing the document in context. It is necessary to unravel what its author or authors have said, how it has been said, when, why and where, always relating it to its historical moment. Masters, Edgar Lee, 1868-1950, The Spoon River Anthology is a collection of 245 free verse epitaphs in the form of monologues. They are spoken from beyond the grave by former residents of a sad and confined small town like the same Masters he had known during his childhood in Illinois. Speakers speak of their hopes and ambitions and of their bitter and unfulfilled lives. The realistic poems were controversial when they were first published, as they contradicted the popular view of small towns as repositories of moral virtue and respectability.