Spoon River Anthology

Each poem in this book is told by the point of view of a different dead person. Each poem goes to say what kind of person they were and how they lived and died. I read the poem on a man named, Dorcas Gustine. This man seems like he might have been an outsider or a weird one in the town that he lived in. His poem starts off right away with this, "I was not beloved of the villagers, But all because I spoke my mind," (Masters) You can tell that the people there must have found it inappropriate to speak your mind and speak out for what you believe in. But Dorcas seemed to not care at all. He put it this way,

Who hid the wolf under his cloak,

Letting it devour him, uncomplainingly.

It is braver, I think, to snatch the wolf forth

And fight him openly, even in the street,

Amid dust and howls of pain.

I think with this he is trying to say that mostly all people keep their emotions and thought to themselves but, that is not a good thing because it is eating them up on the inside. He is trying to say that it is bad to hold things inside you because eventually it will devour you. But, instead, it is important to let the "wolf" or your thoughts out for all to hear. This is a way to not keep things bottled within and is better for the body and spirit to not have to be involved in horrible things alone. Dorcas has strong opinions and is not afraid to voice it to the people. Of course, this can be compared to Thoreau's Civil Disobedience. In Civil Disobedience Thoreau stands up for what he believes in, which just so happen to be that the government is awful. He does not change his opinion and keeps up his thoughts for so long that he gets sent to jail. This is like Dorcas. Although Dorcas did not end up in the same sort of trouble that Thoreau did he went through a different kind of struggle. Instead of jail he ended up with hatred from the people of his town. But he felt the punishment was worth it to express himself. In this way he relates a lot to Thoreau.

Masters, Edgar Lee. "Dorcas Gustine." Spoon River Anthology. Bartleby.com. Web. 6 Mar. 2012.