Lucinda Matlock

"It takes life to love Life." This very powerful, yet simple, statement highlights the matter-of-fact manner in which the poem "Lucinda Matlock", by Edgar Lee Masters, is written. The poem is fairly straightforward. Masters' language is nothing complicated, and he refrains from including anything overly detailed. This enhances the candid nature of the poem. Even his handling of death is blunt. “At ninety-six I had lived enough, that is all.”  Lucinda describes her life in a series of verbs and simple statements, again avoiding any excessive description. (“Enjoying, working, raising the twelve children, / Eight of whom we lost”) By paralleling the plain style and language to the theme, Master’s emphasizes the simplicity of Lucinda Matlock’s life and of the world around her. She took long aimless walks through fields, gardened, and gathered flowers. Lucinda enjoyed the beauty of the “wooded hills” and “green valleys”.  It is for this reason, that she welcomed death as a “sweet repose”- or peaceful sleep- uniting with nature in death. Perhaps, Masters also hints at a healing side to it as well. The "flowers and medicinal weed" could, in fact, be a reference to how Mother Nature can heal a soul. Nature is the world in its most basic form. A life lived valuing this and void of “sorrow, weariness, anger, discontent, and drooping hopes” is a life worth living.

     I quite enjoyed this poem. Masters’ suggestion to the younger generation that one must live life in order to love it is so true. How can one really enjoy something they have yet to experience? Opening one’s eyes to the world around them and living in the moment makes life much sweeter. I think that far too often humans allow materials, problems, and feelings to cloud their thoughts. Sometimes, it is better to view the world in black and white rather than color.