The poem "Lucinda Matlock" comes from early twentieth-century American poet Edgar Lee Masters's collection called Spoon River Anthology. Each of the poems in Masters's work is spoken by a person who lies buried in the town cemetery of Spoon River, Illinois. Because she is situated at the back of the cemetery, Lucinda's poem is number 207 out of 246 individual poems in the collection. One of the points of her poem is to criticize the others who have already told gloomy stories of sacrifice and bitterness. She labels them as "Degenerate sons and daughters."
During the course of the poem she elaborates on her long life, implying that she was simply a wife, mother, and homemaker like many of the women of her time. She may have also been a healer because she refers to "medicinal weed" which she may have used to aid the sick. She says,
And then I found Davis.
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,
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
At the close of the poem she chastises the others in the cemetery for not enjoying the lives they were given. She also calls death a "sweet repose," suggesting she views it as a peaceful rest.
Wednesday, August 24, 2016
What is Lucinda Matlock's occupation?
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