What is the theme of the poem George Gray?

George Gray is afraid to accept his ambitions in life because he knows that as there is reward, there may also be risk. He did not know what he could afford to lose in following his ambitions so he initially chose to ignore various feelings such as sorrow and ambition.

What does George Gray regret?

But now that he is dead, he regrets wasting every possibility offered to him in his life and recognizes that his greatest mistake was keeping “a furled sail” and not “catching the winds of destiny”, with the result of living a meaningless life.

When was George Gray written?

George Gray. Masters, Edgar Lee. 1916. Spoon River Anthology.

What is Fiddler Jones about?

“Fiddler Jones” is one of the happier poems in Edgar Lee Masters’s Spoon River Anthology. It tells the story of a man who loved music and privileged what he loved—playing the fiddle and listening to music—over the work of farming. Why, fiddle you must, for all your life.

What is a boat longing for the sea and yet afraid?

“It is a boat longing for the sea.” Which line(s) from the poem extends the metaphor for the speaker’s life that is introduced in the first stanza of the poem? To put meaning in one’s life may end in madness. It is a boat longing for the sea and yet afraid.

Who wrote the poem George Gray?

Edgar Lee Masters
George Gray by Edgar Lee Masters – Poems | Academy of American Poets.

What does Fiddler Jones love to do?

He loves dance and picnic and wish someone could take him away from the road to a dance or picnic. “And I never started to plow in my life. And take me away to a dance or picnic” (Fiddler, Lines 3-4). From the analyses, the two characters are similar based on the manner they view life.

What is the theme of Lucinda Matlock?

The theme of this poem is loving life and living it to the fullest. Lucinda Matlock is angered in the end of the poem by those who complain and focus on all the hardships in life. She endured losing most of her children but she found joy in life.

What is the connotative effect of the word lines 2 and 46 in this poem?

What is the connotative effect of the word loitering (lines 2 and 46) in this poem? It suggests that the Knight is no longer interested in the beautiful lady without mercy. It implies that the Knight is angry with “La Belle Dame sans Merci” and wants to find her and kill her.

How are fiddler and Lucinda Matlock different?

Lucinda represents those who never give up in life when troubles appear. Fiddler Jones, on the other hand, loves life at the expense of work. He has forty acres of land and is not ready to gain more. He loves doing what makes him happy each day, but all that he does are not any kind of paying jobs.

What does Lucinda Matlock mean in line 24 by life is too strong for you?

Her comment that “life is too strong for you” suggests that they could not cope with life’s struggles or that they didn’t embrace life fully enough to enjoy it. So, the notion that “people who do not enjoy life might as well be dead” comes closest to Lucinda’s meaning.

Are there living people in Spoon River Anthology?

To understand fully what Masters hoped to achieve in Spoon River Anthology, it is important always to keep one fact in mind: The people speaking are dead. Masters did not offer a picture of a town full of living people, so the careful reader must ask: Why not? Why must these people speak to us from the grave?

Why is death a theme in Spoon River Anthology?

Death frees them to show the reader the reality of their lives and their emotions. With this freedom, the audience is granted a visceral and moving portrait of how members of the human family can and do treat one another, how they really behave, what truly motivates them.

What are the final epitaphs in Spoon River Anthology?

In one of the final epitaphs in the collection, “Jeremy Carlisle,” Masters puts Griffy’s words into perspective, showing that it is one’s duty to try to know the people of one’s community, to try to pierce the loneliness and lies and sadness that separate one person from another.

Who are the main characters in Spoon River?

Even when the inhabitants of Spoon River have strong desires (such as Harry Wilmans’ naïve patriotic desire to go to Manila to fight for his country or Seth Compton’s desire to provide books and knowledge for the residents of this town), they are destroyed by these desires.