This collection begins with "The Hill" which questions "Where are" many of the title figures, such as Minerva Jones and Emily Sparks.  
A pessimistic character in this work claims that life stares with burning eyes at you, scowls and laughs, "until your misery bores him."  Another character in this work, Amanda Barker, claims that her husband got her pregnant even though he knew she'd die in childbirth.  A mock epic purportedly by Jonathan Swift Somers ends this work, while in another section, a teacher claims that Ruben Pantier is the "boy I loved best of all in the school."  This collection begins with "The Hill" which questions "Where are" many of the title figures, such as Minerva Jones and Emily Sparks.  FTP, name this book of poetry featuring dead members of an Illinois town speaking a graveyard, a work of Edgar Lee Masters.
A pessimistic character in this work claims that life stares with burning eyes at you, scowls and laughs, "until your misery bores him."  
{Spoon River Anthology} (1) [AH]