Explore "Homer Clapp" by Edgar Lee Masters on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Often Aner Clute at the gate / Refused me the parting kiss, / Saying we should be engaged before that;
And just with a distant clasp of the hand / She bade me good-night, as I brought her home / From the skating rink or the revival.
No sooner did my departing footsteps die away / Than Lucius Atherton, / (So I learned when Aner went to Peoria)
Stole in at her window, or took her riding / Behind his spanking team of bays / Into the country.
The shock of it made me settle down / And I put all the money I got from my father's estate / Into the canning factory, to get the job / Of head accountant, and lost it all.
And then I knew I was one of Life's fools, / Whom only death would treat as the equal / Of other men, making me feel like a man.