{
 "id": "edgar-lee-masters/benjamin-fraser",
 "title": "Benjamin Fraser",
 "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": 20,
 "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": 23,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 62,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Their spirits beat upon mine",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like the wings of a thousand butterflies.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I closed my eyes and felt their spirits vibrating.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I closed my eyes, yet I knew when their lashes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fringed their cheeks from downcast eyes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And when they turned their heads;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And when their garments clung to them,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or fell from them, in exquisite draperies.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their spirits watched my ecstasy",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With wide looks of starry unconcern.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their spirits looked upon my torture;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They drank it as it were the water of life;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With reddened cheeks, brightened eyes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The rising flame of my soul made their spirits gilt,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like the wings of a butterfly drifting suddenly into sunlight.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And they cried to me for life, life, life.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But in taking life for myself,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In seizing and crushing their souls,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As a child crushes grapes and drinks",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From its palms the purple juice,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I came to this wingless void,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where neither red, nor gold, nor wine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor the rhythm of life is known.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}