“America's greatest lyric poet.”

Masters's striking assessment of Vachel Lindsay's achievement as a lyric poet · Whitman-era literary criticism

• Art
• Judgement
• Poetry

“The names I drew from both the Spoon River and the Sangamon River neighborhoods, combining first names here with surnames there.”

Revealing how remembered communities were reshaped through artistic invention · Essay, The Genesis of Spoon River (1933)

• Art
• Memory
• Poetry

“It is the poetry which proves the laws of the spirit of man.”

Sees poetry as a way of revealing fundamental truths about human nature · Across Spoon River

• Humanity
• Poetry
• Truth