Out past where the boats go

Abstract

This work is a collection of historically based poems written in the spirit of Edgar Lee Master’s Spoon River Anthology. Some of them are based on actual historical persons who lived, many in nineteenth century America. No known historical facts have been counteracted; instead, the effort has been to creatively imagine the spirit of each voice. Personages include Sylvester Graham, Edward Burdett, Esther Howland, John William Draper, and "Boston" Thomas Corbett. Other pieces attempt to present a particular voice written in the spirit of a certain time. These narrative poems are followed by a collection of prose poems written in the voice of missionary Narcissa Whitman who settled with her husband Marcus Whitman at what is now present day Walla Walla, Washington in an attempt to serve the Cayuse.