Judge Somers -- Spoon River Anthology

Kinsey Keene >>>

This poem was included in the original 1915 edition.

How does it happen, tell me,
That I who was most erudite of lawyers,
Who knew Blackstone and Coke
Almost by heart, who made the greatest speech
The court-house ever heard, and wrote
A brief that won the praise of Justice Breese
How does it happen, tell me,
That I lie here unmarked, forgotten,
While Chase Henry, the town drunkard,
Has a marble block, topped by an urn
Wherein Nature, in a mood ironical,
Has sown a flowering weed?

Comments

Jay Bushman , 7 months ago

Why is Judge Somers in an unmarked grave? Who put him there?

Could it be Jonathan Swift Somers? How exactly are they related. Could JS Swift be the Judge's son? And since the Spooniad implies he sympathizes with the liberals, could he have buried his father without a headstone as revenge or commentary?

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