{
 "id": "edgar-lee-masters/ralph-rhodes",
 "title": "Ralph Rhodes",
 "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": 131,
 "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": 49,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "All they said was true:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I wrecked my father’s bank with my loans",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To dabble in wheat; but this was true⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I was buying wheat for him as well,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who couldn’t margin the deal in his name",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Because of his church relationship.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And while George Reece was serving his term",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I chased the will-o’-the-wisp of women,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the mockery of wine in New York.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It’s deathly to sicken of wine and women",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When nothing else is left in life.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But suppose your head is gray, and bowed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On a table covered with acrid stubs",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of cigarettes and empty glasses,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And a knock is heard, and you know it’s the knock",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So long drowned out by popping corks",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the peacock screams of demireps⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And you look up, and there’s your Theft,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who waited until your head was gray,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And your heart skipped beats to say to you:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The game is ended. I’ve called for you,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Go out on Broadway and be run over,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They’ll ship you back to Spoon River.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}