Edgar Lee Masters (1868–1950). Spoon River Anthology. 1916.

174. Granville Calhoun

I WANTED to be County Judge

One more term, so as to round out a service

Of thirty years.

But my friends left me and joined my enemies,

And they elected a new man.

Then a spirit of revenge seized me,

And I infected my four sons with it,

And I brooded upon retaliation,

Until the great physician, Nature,

Smote me through with paralysis

To give my soul and body a rest.

Did my sons get power and money?

Did they serve the people or yoke them,

To till and harvest fields of self?

For how could they ever forget

My face at my bed-room window,

Sitting helpless amid my golden cages

Of singing canaries,

Looking at the old court-house?