Edgar Lee Masters was a poet and novelist born in the late 1800s. He is best known for his famous 1915 publication of Spoon River Anthology, a collection of 244 free verse epitaphs told by grave by the former residents, both real and fictional, of Spoon River, a fictional town. All 244 dead residents of Spoon River have a story to tell about their victories, hardships and secrets. Masters rose to fame revealing the secret lives and loves of small-town residents, told in their own voices from beyond the grave in American poetry. It was a sensitive topic and an innovative method. One poem by Masters is "Reuben Pantier". It was about a troubled young man who grew up in an abnormal family and never realized the message of his old teacher, Emily Sparks, in his teachings until later in his life. The poem begins with Reuben talking to his old teacher Emily Sparks. "I owe everything I have been in life / To your hope that has not abandoned me, / To your love that still saw me as good." (lns 3-5) Reuben confesses that he is not "good". Even so, it was ...