Once is a Lifetime
The World is Often Not as it Appears Many in society only looks skin deeper. If they were to look deeper, then they would get the real story. One person to look into the story of others is Edgar Lee Masters. He was poet from the twentieth century that had written over two hundred poems that look into the stories of the deceased. In a couple of his works he had written some poems about how these few people had once seemed fine, but truly weren’t. Three of these people were Nancy Knapp, Barry Holden, and Mrs. Charles Bliss. To start us off, Nancy Knapp will go first to show that people can be lost to the world with something simple. Nancy was living with her husband, who had recently inherited his father’s house. Now, that seems all fine and normal and it would be, if there was so many issues going on at the time. “The murrain took the cattle, and the crops failed.” (Spoon River Anthology; Masters; p.57) These were only some of the problems that were going on. Then, one day, Nancy had smelled something atrocious. For some reason, she had lost her sanity right then. She had…show more content… Barry Holden’s poem starts off at a trial about the murder of Zora Clemens. During this trial, he recalls all his problems that have occurred recently, like the amount of children he already has without the one that will be arriving soon and the passing of his sister. “…the farm mortgaged to Thomas Rhodes?” (Spoon River Anthology; Masters; p.58) This quote is for another example of Holden’s issues. When Holden had arrived home, he had found a hatchet his sons had left. He had picked the hatchet up and brought it inside with him. Then, when his pregnant wife had barely mentioned the mortgage, he had killed her with the hatchet. He was one that believed he only had life and, now, he had ruined that one life for himself. His ending had, obviously, landed on a negative note, seeing has he had killed his wife and unborn child. That was Barry Holden’s
