Edgar Lee Masters Trial

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Members of the Jury, we are here today to discuss the unfair accusation against the defendant, Edgar Lee Masters. The people of Spoon River have filed a defamation case against this poor man for publishing poems which put the gruesome truth to light, exposing the seemingly peaceful country town of Spoon River. Over the years, Masters collected bits of gossip, and throughout an anthology of over 200 poems, he slowly uncovered the truth, hoping to debunk the idea that small country towns are peaceful and that stories are owned by no-one.

Most of these poems are about acts, such as murder and adultery, but some of these poems tell stories of people who have changed and believe that what they have done is wrong. Through Masters, some of the people who have committed these things …show more content…
The short poem about Elmer Karr shows how he converted to Christianity. In the 14 years he spent in jail, some sincere words from the poem read “What but the love of God could have softened and made forgiving the people of Spoon River toward me who wronged the bed of Thomas Merritt and murdered him beside”. Your honour, if this was you, would you not want to be remembered as a changed man? Elmer Kerr surely wanted this side of him shown, and so would anyone else. Your honour, the opposition aren’t fighting for the truth, they are fighting to conceal it and avoid the consequences.

The side of these poems which seeks to reveal these grim truths is carefully written, like the poem about Searcy Foote, the merciless nephew of sweet old Aunt Persis. His unfathomable greed led him to commit a crime which was rightly uncovered to the public. In the poem Searcy is clearly shown to have murdered his aunt “I poured the chloroform on a handkerchief And held it to her nose till she died” This extract from the poem clearly shows that Searcy Foote had killed his Aunt, a peaceful elderly lady, enjoying the last few years of her life. Edgar Lee Masters is a
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