The Open Sea
Tags
Summary
Editor's review
Who it's for
A good fit for
- Readers who enjoy American poetry and are willing to read English verse slowly
- Scholars and students of Masters or American literary history
- Those drawn to nature and sea imagery who seek a quiet reading experience
- General readers looking for low-cost access to public-domain English poetry
Not a good fit for
- Readers with limited English proficiency who need a Chinese translation
- Those seeking plot-driven fiction or practical nonfiction
- Readers impatient with poetic form who prefer fast-paced reading
Reading tips
- Start with the table of contents, pick poems whose titles attract you, and don't feel bound to read in order.
- After each poem, jot down in one or two sentences the image or line that moved you most.
- Read alongside background on Masters's Spoon River Anthology to understand the continuity of his style.
- When you meet unfamiliar words, guess from context first and look them up after finishing the poem.
About the publisher
Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.
Contents
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- 9
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FAQ
Is this book in Chinese or English?
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About the author
Edgar Lee Masters (1868–1950) was an American poet best known for Spoon River Anthology, a collection of verse epitaphs in which the dead of a small town speak for themselves. In spare, unsentimental lines, these poems expose the secrets, disappointments, and ironies hidden beneath ordinary lives, breaking with the solemn tone of traditional elegy and leaving a clear mark on the subjects and voice of modern American poetry. The library holds nine of his works, including, besides Spoon River Anthology, The Open Sea, The Great Valley, Starved Rock, Mitch Miller, Songs and Satires, Toward the Gulf, and Domesday Book. These touch on nature and regional landscape, the historical memory of the American Midwest, and observations of social life. Masters is generally noted for his realistic portraits of people and places, written in plain language with an ironic edge. Public information about his life and education is limited, so no details are given here.
