Francis Turner / Edgar Lee Masters

Francis Turner

I could not run or play
In boyhood.
In manhood I could only sip the cup,
Not drink –
For scarlet-fever left my heart diseased.
Yet I lie here
Soothed by a secret none but Mary knows:
There is a garden of acacia,
Catalpa trees, and arbors sweet with vines
– There on that afternoon in June
By Mary’s side –
Kissing her with my soul upon my lips
It suddenly took flight.

~~
Edgar Lee Masters (1868-1950)
from Spoon River Anthology, 1915

[Poem is in the public domain in Canada and the United States]

Edgar Lee Masters biography