{
 "id": "edgar-lee-masters/batterton-dobyns",
 "title": "Batterton Dobyns",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Edgar Lee Masters",
 "poet_slug": "edgar-lee-masters",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Spoon River Anthology",
 "book_slug": "spoon-river-anthology",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 144,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1916,
  "venue": "Spoon River Anthology (1916)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/spoonriveranthol021mast"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/edgar-lee-masters_spoon-river-anthology",
  "file": "spoon-river-anthology.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://web.archive.org/web/20080723131115/http://spoonriveranthology.net/spoon/river/originalOrder/",
   "https://archive.org/details/spoonriveranthol021mast"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 22,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 44,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Did my widow flit about",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From Mackinac to Los Angeles,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Resting and bathing and sitting an hour",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or more at the table over soup and meats",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And delicate sweets and coffee?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I was cut down in my prime",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From overwork and anxiety.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But I thought all along, whatever happens",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’ve kept my insurance up,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And there’s something in the bank,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And a section of land in Manitoba.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But just as I slipped I had a vision",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In a last delirium:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I saw myself lying nailed in a box",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With a white lawn tie and a boutonniere,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And my wife was sitting by a window",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Some place afar overlooking the sea;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She seemed so rested, ruddy and fat,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Although her hair was white.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And she smiled and said to a colored waiter:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Another slice of roast beef, George.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Here’s a nickel for your trouble.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}