The Hill-Hare Drummer Summary

Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology begins with the poem, "The Hill," which describes numerous members of the town of Spoon River and their stories, and then asks the reader where these people may be found. The answer provided by the poem is they all may be found sleeping on "The Hill," or the Spoon River Cemetery.

The litany of Spoon River residents and their exploits breaks off abruptly, and what follows are epitaphs spoken by selected dead of Spoon River. The reader is first introduced to Hod Put, who states that he is buried next to Old Bill Piersol, who grew rich trading with the Indians and later declared bankruptcy and emerged even richer than ever. Tired of toil and poverty and seeing the incredible wealth of Piersol and others like him, Pod tells the reader he robbed...