Edgar Lee Masters’ “Reuben Pantier” from Spoon River Anthology features the testimony of the son of Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Pantier. He recounts his story as he addresses his former teacher, Emily Sparks.
First Movement: “Well, Emily Sparks, your prayers were not wasted”
Reuben Pantier, addressing his former teacher, Emily Sparks, reveals that the teacher had prayed for her student and always believed in his good nature. His opening remark hints that he did not move through this life as untroubled as he might have liked, but that with the good will of his former teacher, he has been able to salvage some self esteem.
Thus, he tells Miss Sparks, “your prayers were not wasted,” and her care for him “was not all in vain.” He further asserts, “I owe whatever I was in life / To your hope that would not give me up, / To your love that saw me still as good.”
Second Movement: “Dear Emily Sparks, let me tell you the story”
In the second movement, Reuben tells his “story” to Miss Sparks. He managed to survive the withering childhood that might have blighted the life of one less strong willed. The reader will remember that his parents were a dysfunctional couple whose example would have proved negative for children. Nevertheless, Reuben claims that he survived this negative environment.
After “pass[ing] the effect of [his] father and mother,” however, he was caused great difficulty in a relationship with “the milliner’s daughter.” Leaving Spoon River and going out into the world, he met with “every peril known / Of wine and women and joy of life.” He became a womanizer and one given to debauchery.
Third Movement: “One night, in a room in the Rue de Rivoli”
Finally, Reuben gets to the heart of his “story”: one night he finds himself in a Paris hotel room with a “dark-eyed cocotte.” The prostitute sees that Reuben’s eyes have become brimmed with tears, and she thinks he is crying “amorous tears” for her. He reports that she thought his tears showed her power over him, or as he puts it, “for thought of her conquest over me.”
Fourth Movement: “But my soul was three thousand miles away”
Reuben then declaims that his “soul was three thousand miles away” and many years back to the “days when you taught me in Spoon River.” Thus, his heart and mind were not with the prostitute in France but back with his former teacher in his old home town of Spoon River.
Reuben then declares that even though he was no longer in the physical presence of the one person who showed him care and attention, his soul became aware of the love she had shown him, and “the eternal silence of you spoke instead.”
Fifth Movement: “And the black-eyed cocotte took the tears for hers”
The prostitute’s mistaken belief that Reuben cared for her motivated him to understand that the reality of spiritual love is stronger and more satisfying than the false affection of a physical relationship. Thus, “from that hour, I had a new vision.” And he realized it was the prayers and love he had been afforded by “Dear Emily Sparks” that sparked his new understanding.
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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