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

35. Flossie Cabanis

FROM Bindle’s opera house in the village

To Broadway is a great step.

But I tried to take it, my ambition fired

When sixteen years of age,

Seeing “East Lynne” played here in the village

By Ralph Barrett, the coming

Romantic actor, who enthralled my soul.

True, I trailed back home, a broken failure,

When Ralph disappeared in New York,

Leaving me alone in the city—

But life broke him also.

In all this place of silence

There are no kindred spirits.

How I wish Duse could stand amid the pathos

Of these quiet fields

And read these words.