In Edgar Lee Master’s Spoon River Anthology, he writes a series of post-money monologues discussing the life and death of various former residents of a town. In the poem “Editor Whedon” from his anthology, describes the irony found in the life and death of a newspaper editor who had worked so hard yet faced the same faith as everyone else. The poem captures the contrast of the editor‘s life before and after his death through the syntax, tone and figurative language, Master uses to describe it. The beginning of the poem establishes a tone of built-up excitement as the repetition of the infinitive “To be” is shown in the first six lines.
This parallelism in the structure quickly reveals the many different things the editor had to do during his life, Some of the actions he performed reveal evil in his nature as he had “To pervert the truth, to ride it for a purpose, To use great feelings and passions of the human family For base designs, for cunning ends,” This fluid syntax allows for a flow of thought that describes the corruption and dishonesty he had to commit as the editor. This is further exemplified with the use of detail, as Editor Whedon is described as a “sneak-thief” who “scratched dirt over scandal for money” and “crushed reputations, or bodies, if need be, to win at any cost, save his own life” making the editor appear as evil and just a horrible personi However, in line 21 the speaker makes a shift in the poem as he notes “To be an editor, as I was” as he tells that he is no longer alive.
The irony is in how he once he was a horrible person who live to dirty the appearance of the people around him, and now in death he forever lies “where the sewage flows from the village, and the empty cans and garbage are dumped, and abortions are hidden,” all the things he once used to destroy people’s lives is what surrounds him for eternity. Edgar Lee Master’s Spoon River Anthology delivers a unique perspective on mortality as his poems explore the effects life and death have on the different people of a town. In Editor Whedon’s case, the irony of death is demonstrated as someone who lived to dirty the images of everyone around him, now will be surrounded by everything he used to smudge the appearance of everything else.
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