Edgar Lee Masters’ “Daisy Fraser” from Spoon River Anthology dramatizes her attempt to justify her own behavior by a series of implications that others have committed acts far worse than he own.
First Movement: “Did you ever hear of Editor Whedon”
The speaker begins with a question that implicates “Editor Whedon” in political improprieties, that is, taking money for “supporting candidates for office.” But the speaker wants to know if the editor ever gave that money to the “public treasury.”
Of course, her rhetorical question is implying that he, in fact, did not. And she continues her questioning filled with further implications of political shenanigans. The fact that she is choosing easy targets should alert the reader early on regarding what is happening in Daisy’s mind.
Second Movement: “Or for writing up the canning factory”
In the second movement, Daisy continues her rhetorical queries, wondering if the illegal funds from the canning factory were given to the public treasury. Again, she is suggesting that the money was used by the editor for lining his own pocket. The editor also received kickbacks for hiding the financial condition of the bank, when it was on the verge of folding.
The editor of the newspaper should have been revealing these unsavory facts about these institutions, but instead he took money and kept quiet, if the reader believes as Daisy does. Daisy wants to demonstrate, of course, that she is decrying that fact that freedom of the press can be abused.
Third Movement: “Did you ever hear of the Circuit Judge”
The third movement contains two movements that are blended. The first part features the rhetorical question, “Did you ever hear of the Circuit Judge / Helping anyone except the “Q” railroad, / Or the bankers?” Daisy now focuses on a judicial officer who blinks when influential parties commit illegal acts.
The accusation again includes the implication that like the editor, the judge is also on the take. But then she immediately focuses on the religious establishment by again questioning whether the reverends Peet and Sibley had ever contributed to the public works, that is, “water works,” any of the money they received by keeping quiet about the graft.
Not only was the press corrupt but the legal and religious institutions were rife with corruption as well, and of course with a press acquiescing the face of that corruption, the corruption is likely not only to continue but to spread.
Fourth Movement: “But I—Daisy Fraser who always passed”
In the final movement, all of Daisy’s implied accusations take a tumble. When Daisy Fraser appeared before Justice Arnett, she always had to pay up, “contributing ten dollars and costs / To the school fund of Spoon River!”
Offering evidence of her own misconduct, Daisy reports that she “always passed / Along the streets through rows of nods and smiles, / And coughs and words such as ‘there she goes’,” she is decrying her obviously well-earned reputation as a prostitute by trying to implicate other people of the town, a clear case of cutting off the feet of others to try to make oneself taller. Whether all of that graft took place or not, the reader does not know, because Daisy has proven herself an unreliable witness.
Linda Sue Grimes - As a writer, researcher, and SRF devotee, Linda Sue Grimes has studied poetry and practiced Kriya Yoga for over thirty years..
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