In Edgar Lee Masters’ “Jacob Goodpasture” from Spoon River Anthology, speaker Jacob decries his life in terms of the state of the country.
First Movement: “When Fort Sumter fell and the war came”
Jacob begins his lament by declaring the “bitterness of soul” that overcame him when the Civil War began with the firing on Fort Sumter. He says that upon hearing that dreadful news, he exclaimed, “O glorious republic now no more!”
Second Movement: “When they buried my soldier son”
Jacob suffers the loss of his son as a casualty of the war. He felt the war was “unjust.” His heart broke upon hearing the trumpets and the drums sounding for the military funeral.
At age eighty, Jacob felt heavy with the burdens of a long life; there seemed to be no consolation of having a son die for the protection of freedom.
Jacob laments not only that his son was killed, but he also insists that freedom itself was “slain” by the unjust war. Of course, as do most political hacks with opinions unsubstantiated with fact or analysis, Jacob can provide labels without any supporting explanation for how he arrived at his labels.
Third Movement: “And I crept here under the grass”
Jacob dramatically describes the fact that he died by saying, “I crept her under the grass.” He claims that he sees truths now that others cannot see. He sees the United States after its population has enlarged by three times or “thrice thirty million.” The population of the United States was about 31 million at the time of the Civil War.
Jacob predicts that those 90 million souls will be united in “the love of larger truth.” He expects “a new Beauty” to take its birth from “Brotherhood and Wisdom.” Even though he deems the war “unjust” and thus unnecessary, he is optimistic that those later generations will profit from the true goal of the war, which was to keep the nation united. Confusion of purpose never seems to bother those who traffic in political obfuscation.
Fourth Movement: “I with eyes of spirit see the Transfiguration”
Jacob claims he can see the future of the country before the living residents see it. He metaphorically refers to the coming generation as “golden eagles” and asks them to forgive the older war-mongering generation that resembled a blind owl that has now fled the scene.
The timing of Jacob’s prediction is problematic. The reader assumes he died roughly at eighty years old. But then it is unclear how close to the outbreak of the war he was before reaching his eightieth birthday was. If he lived perhaps another twenty years after the war, he might have seen already the efficacy of the war.
Yet for bragging rights, he would have to claim that he had only the foresight to predict that efficacy. His patriotism seems only to hinge on the death of his son; he laments both the death of the son and what he opines to be the death of freedom, while simultaneously pretending to see the rise of freedom—not so much phoenix-like but more like the rising of a bloodied moon.
Source
- Edgar Lee Masters, "Jacob Goodpasture," Spoon River Anthology, bartleby.com
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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