{
 "id": "edgar-lee-masters/washington-mcneely",
 "title": "Washington McNeely",
 "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": 99,
 "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": 28,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 63,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Rich, honored by my fellow citizens,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The father of many children, born of a noble mother,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All raised there",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the great mansion-house, at the edge of town.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Note the cedar tree on the lawn!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I sent all the boys to Ann Arbor, all of the girls to Rockford,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The while my life went on, getting more riches and honors⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Resting under my cedar tree at evening.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The years went on. I sent the girls to Europe;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I dowered them when married.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I gave the boys money to start in business.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They were strong children, promising as apples",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Before the bitten places show.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But John fled the country in disgrace.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Jenny died in child-birth⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I sat under my cedar tree.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Harry killed himself after a debauch,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Susan was divorced⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I sat under my cedar tree.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Paul was invalided from over study,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mary became a recluse at home for love of a man⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I sat under my cedar tree.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All were gone, or broken-winged or devoured by life⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I sat under my cedar tree.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My mate, the mother of them, was taken⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I sat under my cedar tree,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till ninety years were tolled.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O maternal Earth, which rocks the fallen leaf to sleep!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}