Explore "Amos Sibley" by Edgar Lee Masters on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Not character, not fortitude, not patience / Were mine, the which the village thought I had / In bearing with my wife, while preaching on, / Doing the work God chose for me.
I loathed her as a termagant, as a wanton.
I knew of her adulteries, every one.
But even so, if I divorced the woman / I must forsake the ministry.
Therefore to do God's work and have it crop, / I bore with her!
So lied I to myself!
So lied I to Spoon River!
Yet I tried lecturing, ran for the legislature, / Canvassed for books, with just the thought in mind:
If I make money thus, I will divorce her.