Back to Index

J. Milton Miles

by Edgar Lee Masters, 1916

Whenever the Presbyterian bell
Was rung by itself, I knew it as the Presbyterian bell.
But when its sound was mingled
With the sound of the Methodist, the Christian,
The Baptist and the Congregational,
I could no longer distinguish it,
Nor any one from the others, or either of them.
And as many voices called to me in life
Marvel not that I could not tell
The true from the false,
Nor even, at last, the voice that I should have known.

Published in Spoon River Anthology
Tags:

Any corrections or public domain poems I should have here? Email me at poems (at) this domain.