Spoon River Anthology (Monologue)
Critical Analysis on building your monologue
Jonathan Swift Somers
1. AFTER you have enriched your soul
2. To the highest point,
3. With books, thought, suffering, the understanding of many personalities,
4 .The power to interpret glances, silences,
5. The pauses in momentous transformations,
6. The genius of divination and prophecy;
7. So that you feel able at times to hold the world
8. In the hollow of your hand;
9. Then, if, by the crowding of so many powers
10. Into the compass of your soul,
11. Your soul takes fire,
12. And in the conflagration of your soul
13. The evil of the world is lighted up and made clear--
14. Be thankful if in that hour of supreme vision
15. Life does not fiddle.
When viewing over Spoon River Anthology written by Edgar Lee Masters, various monologues came into consideration for further analysis. Although these numerous monologues were considered its speculation would became discarded when I read “Jonathan Swift Somers”. The words of “Jonathan Swift Somers” are profoundly revolutionary and holds a much deeper meaning that what lays on the surface. Its words are strongly close to my own personal life in which very few would be able to truly comprehend. When reading over this piece my interpretation of it is that I am a father that is 44 years old that is speaking to his son about his life at the age of manhood (18 years old). The reason that I am speaking to my son about his life is because I see him suffering the same way that I have. I see my son having the same exact troubles with expectations from society, School, Family, Friends, Co-workers and everyone in-between. Although my son is striving to achieve these expectations that all these external forces have placed on him, he feels miserable. Simply because he’s not living up to his own expectations of becoming a magician, due to the fact that he works fulltime hours at a pizza store when being a full time student at college. He simply doesn’t have time
Jonathan Swift Somers
1. AFTER you have enriched your soul
2. To the highest point,
3. With books, thought, suffering, the understanding of many personalities,
4 .The power to interpret glances, silences,
5. The pauses in momentous transformations,
6. The genius of divination and prophecy;
7. So that you feel able at times to hold the world
8. In the hollow of your hand;
9. Then, if, by the crowding of so many powers
10. Into the compass of your soul,
11. Your soul takes fire,
12. And in the conflagration of your soul
13. The evil of the world is lighted up and made clear--
14. Be thankful if in that hour of supreme vision
15. Life does not fiddle.
When viewing over Spoon River Anthology written by Edgar Lee Masters, various monologues came into consideration for further analysis. Although these numerous monologues were considered its speculation would became discarded when I read “Jonathan Swift Somers”. The words of “Jonathan Swift Somers” are profoundly revolutionary and holds a much deeper meaning that what lays on the surface. Its words are strongly close to my own personal life in which very few would be able to truly comprehend. When reading over this piece my interpretation of it is that I am a father that is 44 years old that is speaking to his son about his life at the age of manhood (18 years old). The reason that I am speaking to my son about his life is because I see him suffering the same way that I have. I see my son having the same exact troubles with expectations from society, School, Family, Friends, Co-workers and everyone in-between. Although my son is striving to achieve these expectations that all these external forces have placed on him, he feels miserable. Simply because he’s not living up to his own expectations of becoming a magician, due to the fact that he works fulltime hours at a pizza store when being a full time student at college. He simply doesn’t have time