Edgar Lee Masters

The American poet and biographer Masters was born in Garnett, Kansas. He maintained a successful law practice in Chicago from 1892 to 1920. Masters's Spoon River Anthology (1915), a collection of epitaphs in free verse

Amanda Barker

by Edgar Lee Masters (1869–1950)

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4    <name>
5      <firstname>Edgar Lee</firstname>
6      <lastname>Masters</lastname>
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8    <life-events>
9      <date ty="birth" circa="false" suffix="ad">1869</date>
10      <date ty="death" circa="false" suffix="ad">1950</date>
11      <text-value>(1869–1950)</text-value>
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16

Henry got me with child,

Knowing that I could not bring forth life

Without losing my own.

In my youth therefore I entered the portals of dust.

Traveler, it is believed in the village where I lived

That Henry loved me with a husband's love

But I proclaim from the dust

That he slew me to gratify his hatred.

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