Oaks Tutt

Listen to:

Oaks Tutt (1:31)

from Spoon River Anthology
by Edgar Lee Masters

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

My mother was for woman's rights
  And my father was the rich miller at London Mills.
  I dreamed of the wrongs of the world and wanted to right them.
  When my father died, I set out to see peoples and countries
  In order to learn how to reform the world.
  I traveled through many lands. I saw the ruins of Rome
  And the ruins of Athens, And the ruins of Thebes.
  And I sat by moonlight amid the necropolis of Memphis.
  There I was caught up by wings of flame,
  And a voice from heaven said to me:
  "Injustice, Untruth destroyed them.
  Go forth Preach Justice! Preach Truth!"
  And I hastened back to Spoon River
  To say farewell to my mother before beginning my work.
  They all saw a strange light in my eye.
  And by and by, when I talked, they discovered
  What had come in my mind.
  Then Jonathan Swift Somers challenged me to debate
  The subject, (I taking the negative):
  "Pontius Pilate, the Greatest Philosopher of the World."
  And he won the debate by saying at last,
  "Before you reform the world, Mr. Tutt
  Please answer the question of Pontius Pilate:
  "What is Truth?"