| Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). The New Poetry: An Anthology. 1917. |
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| 228. Spoon River Anthology |
| | | Lucinda Matlock |
| | | By Edgar Lee Masters |
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| I WENT to the dances at Chandlerville, | |
| And played snap-out at Winchester. | |
| One time we changed partners, | |
| Driving home in the moonlight of middle June, | |
| And then I found Davis. | 5 |
| We were married and lived together for seventy years, | |
| Enjoying, working, raising the twelve children, | |
| Eight of whom we lost | |
| Ere I had reached the age of sixty. | |
| I spun, I wove, I kept the house, I nursed the sick, | 10 |
| I made the garden, and for holiday | |
| Rambled over the fields where sang the larks, | |
| And by Spoon River gathering many a shell, | |
| And many a flower and medicinal weed— | |
| Shouting to the wooded hills, singing to the green valleys. | 15 |
| At ninety-six I had lived enough, that is all, | |
| And passed to a sweet repose. | |
| What is this I hear of sorrow and weariness, | |
| Anger, discontent and drooping hopes? | |
| Degenerate sons and daughters, | 20 |
| Life is too strong for you— | |
| It takes life to love Life. | |
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