Edgar Lee Masters gives voice to A. D. Blood, a dead man who spent his life crusading against vice—closing saloons, banning cards, dragging Daisy Fraser into court. Now he speaks from the grave, baffled and bitter. If the villagers really believed his moral work was good, why do they let Dora, the milliner’s daughter, and Benjamin Pantier’s no-good son use his grave as their nightly meeting place? The phrase “unholy pillow” makes clear they are doing more than talking. The mood is sour and ironic: Blood’s outrage is undercut by the fact that even his tombstone cannot enforce the purity he fought for. The town’s respect for his crusade turns out to be hollow, and the lovers treat his grave as just another private spot—a sharp little portrait of a moralizer whose authority ends with death.
A. D. Blood — Summary
If you in the village think that my work was a good one, Who closed the saloons and stopped all playing at cards, And haled old Daisy Fraser before Justice Arnett, In many a crusade to purge the people of sin; Why do you let the milliner’s daughter Dora, And the worthless son of Benjamin Pantier Nightly make my grave their unholy pillow?