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by Edgar Lee Masters (1868 - 1950)

Ollie McGee
 (Sung text for setting by A. Downes)
 Matches original text
Language: English 
Have you seen walking through the village
A man with downcast eyes and haggard face?
That is my husband who, by secret cruelty
Never to be told, robbed me of my youth and my beauty;
Till at last, wrinkled and with yellow teeth,
And with broken pride and shameful humility,
I sank into the grave.
But what think you gnaws at my husband's heart?
The face of what I was, the face of what he made me!
These are driving him to the place where I lie.
In death, therefore, I am avenged.

Confirmed with Edgar Lee Masters, Spoon River Anthology, New York: The Macmillan Company, 1921, page 4.


Composition:

    Set to music by Andrew Downes (1950 - 2023), "Ollie McGee", 1986, from Songs from Spoon River, no. 1

Text Authorship:

  • by Edgar Lee Masters (1868 - 1950), "Ollie McGee", appears in Spoon River Anthology, first published 1916

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Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 11
Word count: 93

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