Josiah Tompkins speaks from the grave, remembering how his life in Spoon River fell apart. He had been respected, comfortable, and rooted in his hometown, and he expected his youngest son—the only one who stayed—to care for him in old age. Instead, the son and daughter-in-law saw him as an obstacle to the business, turned his wife against him, and moved him to Missouri, draining much of his fortune in the process. He made his will exactly as the son dictated, but in the end the son gained little from it. The speaker’s tone is quietly wounded and ironical, not openly furious. The mood is one of resignation, family betrayal, and the loneliness of losing both home and authority.
Josiah Tompkins — Summary
I was well known and much beloved And rich, as fortunes are reckoned In Spoon River, where I had lived and worked. That was the home for me, Though all my children had flown afar— Which is the way of Nature—all but one. The boy, who was the baby, stayed at home, To be my help in my failing years And the solace of his mother. But I grew weaker, as he grew stronger, And he quarreled with me about the business, And his wife said I was a hindrance to it; And he won his mother to see as he did, Till they tore me up to be transplanted With them to her girlhood home in Missouri. And so much of my fortune was gone at last, Though I made the will just as he drew it, He profited little by it.