Skip to content
Linespedia

Tennessee Claflin Shope

Topics: classic

I was the laughing-stock of the village,         Chiefly of the people of good sense, as they call themselves -         Also of the learned, like Rev. Peet, who read Greek         The same as English.         For instead of talking free trade,         Or preaching some form of baptism;         Instead of believing in the efficacy         Of walking cracks, picking up pins the right way,         Seeing the new moon over the right shoulder,         Or curing rheumatism with blue glass,         I asserted the sovereignty of my own soul.         Before Mary Baker G. Eddy even got started         With what she called science I had mastered the "Bhagavad Gita,"         And cured my soul, before Mary Began to cure bodies with souls -         Peace to all worlds!

AI analysis available. Enable JavaScript to interact.

About this line

"I was the laughing-stock of the village,..."

Edgar Lee Masters's contribution to classic is further solidified by the brilliance found in "Tennessee Claflin Shope"... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...

Classified Tags

Related lines

"Antonio loved the Lady Clare.         He caught her to him on the stair         And pressed her breasts and kissed her hair,         And dr"

"I am Minerva, the village poetess,         Hooted at, jeered at by the Yahoos of the street         For my heavy body, cock-eye, and rolling"

""I was walking by the river," Barrett said,         "When she arrived. I took her hand, no kiss,         A silence for some minutes as we wa"

"Well, Emily Sparks, your prayers were not wasted,         Your love was not all in vain.         I owe whatever I was in life         To yo"

"Here morning in the ploughman's songs is met     Ere yet one footstep shows in all the sky,     And twilight in the east, a doubt as yet,     S"

"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

Continue Reading

"Antonio loved the Lady Clare.         He caught he..."

Weekly Poetic Insight

Join our literary Sanctuary

Get the most inspiring lines, poetic analysis, and secret shayaris delivered to your inbox every Sunday.