The Hill

{| align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="font-family:Times;" The Hill is the first poem in Spoon River Anthology and serves to introduce the book's content.
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Poem Text
WHERE are Elmer, Herman, Bert, Tom and Charley, One time at Springfield.
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 * align="left"|The weak of will, the strong of arm, the clown, the boozer, the fighter?
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 * align="left"|All, all, are sleeping on the hill.
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 * align="left"|One passed in a fever,
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 * align="left"|One was burned in a mine,
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 * align="left"|One was killed in a brawl,
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 * align="left"|One died in a jail,
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 * align="left"|One fell from a bridge toiling for children and wife—
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 * align="left"|All, all are sleeping, sleeping, sleeping on the hill.
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 * align="left"|Where are Ella, Kate, Mag, Lizzie and Edith,
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 * align="left"|The tender heart, the simple soul, the loud, the proud, the happy one?—
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 * align="left"|All, all, are sleeping on the hill.
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 * align="left"|One died in shameful child-birth,
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 * align="left"|One of a thwarted love,
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 * align="left"|One at the hands of a brute in a brothel,
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 * align="left"|One of a broken pride, in the search for heart’s desire,
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 * align="left"|One after life in far-away London and Paris
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 * align="left"|Was brought to her little space by Ella and Kate and Mag—
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 * align="left"|All, all are sleeping, sleeping, sleeping on the hill.
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 * align="left"|Where are Uncle Isaac and Aunt Emily,
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 * align="left"|And old Towny Kincaid and Sevigne Houghton,
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 * align="left"|And Major Walker who had talked
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 * align="left"|With venerable men of the revolution?—
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 * align="left"|All, all, are sleeping on the hill.
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 * align="left"|They brought them dead sons from the war,
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 * align="left"|And daughters whom life had crushed,
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 * align="left"|And their children fatherless, crying—
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 * align="left"|All, all are sleeping, sleeping, sleeping on the hill.
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 * align="left"|Where is Old Fiddler Jones
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 * align="left"|Who played with life all his ninety years,
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 * align="left"|Braving the sleet with bared breast,
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 * align="left"|Drinking, rioting, thinking neither of wife nor kin,
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 * align="left"|Nor gold, nor love, nor heaven?
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 * align="left"|Lo! he babbles of the fish-frys of long ago,
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 * align="left"|Of the horse-races of long ago at Clary’s Grove,
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 * align="left"|Of what Abe Lincoln said
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 * align="left"|They brought them dead sons from the war,
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 * align="left"|And daughters whom life had crushed,
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 * align="left"|And their children fatherless, crying—
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 * align="left"|All, all are sleeping, sleeping, sleeping on the hill.
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 * align="left"|Where is Old Fiddler Jones
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 * align="left"|Who played with life all his ninety years,
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 * align="left"|Braving the sleet with bared breast,
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 * align="left"|Drinking, rioting, thinking neither of wife nor kin,
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 * align="left"|Nor gold, nor love, nor heaven?
 * align="right" valign="top"|
 * align="left"|Lo! he babbles of the fish-frys of long ago,
 * align="right" valign="top"|
 * align="left"|Of the horse-races of long ago at Clary’s Grove,
 * align="right" valign="top"|
 * align="left"|Of what Abe Lincoln said
 * align="right" valign="top"|
 * align="left"|
 * align="right" valign="top"|
 * align="left"|Nor gold, nor love, nor heaven?
 * align="right" valign="top"|
 * align="left"|Lo! he babbles of the fish-frys of long ago,
 * align="right" valign="top"|
 * align="left"|Of the horse-races of long ago at Clary’s Grove,
 * align="right" valign="top"|
 * align="left"|Of what Abe Lincoln said
 * align="right" valign="top"|
 * align="left"|
 * align="left"|Of what Abe Lincoln said
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Mentioned

 * Fiddler Jones
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