Edgar Lee Masters’ "Benjamin Fraser"

Edgar Lee Masters has explained that "The Spooniad" is a mock heroic after Alexander Pope's "The Dunciad." The Spooniad offers commentary about each of the Spoon River speakers who hold forth in Spoon River Anthology.

From "The Spooniad" the reader learns that “Benjamin Fraser” was the “son of Benjamin Pantier / By Daisy Fraser,” which resulted in a lethal combination: the Pantiers’ dysfunctional relationship motivated Benjamin Pantier’s bedding the prostitute, Daisy Fraser, who gave birth to the criminally insane Benjamin Fraser. (See the Pantier sequence beginning with "Benjamin Pantier" and "Mrs. Benjamin Pantier." DiscoverHubPages.)

Benjamin Fraser

Their spirits beat upon mine
Like the wings of a thousand butterflies.
I closed my eyes and felt their spirits vibrating.
I closed my eyes, yet I knew when their lashes
Fringed their cheeks from downcast eyes,
And when they turned their heads;
And when their garments clung to them,
Or fell from them, in exquisite draperies.
Their spirits watched my ecstasy
With wide looks at starry unconcern.
Their spirits looked upon my torture;
They drank it as it were the water of life;
With reddened cheeks, brightened eyes
The rising flame of my soul made their spirits gilt,
Like the wings of a butterfly drifting suddenly into sunlight.
And they cried to me for life, life, life.
But in taking life for myself,
In seizing and crushing their souls,
As a child crushes grapes and drinks
From its palms the purple juice,
I came to this wingless void,
Where neither red, nor gold, nor wine,
Nor the rhythm of life is known.

The epitaph “Benjamin Fraser” from Masters’ Spoon River Anthology allows the serial rapist/murderer to dramatize his unsavory character.

First Movement: Twisted Imagination

Their spirits beat upon mine
Like the wings of a thousand butterflies.
I closed my eyes and felt their spirits vibrating.
I closed my eyes, yet I knew when their lashes
Fringed their cheeks from downcast eyes,
And when they turned their heads;
And when their garments clung to them,
Or fell from them, in exquisite draperies.

Benjamin Fraser reports that as he murdered and raped his victims their spirits were like butterflies. Fraser enjoyed the acts of rape and murder intensely and considered the struggle for life of the victims as a play of souls.

Fraser's victims' souls leaving their bodies made the insane criminal think of them as the "wings of a thousand butterflies." He reports that he “closed his eyes and felt their spirits vibrating.”

And even with closed eyes, he knew they were frantically flailing about as “their lashes / Fringed their cheeks from downcast eyes.” As their heads thrashed from side to side, he could sense that their clothes sometimes “clung to them” and at other times “fell from them, in exquisite draperies.” In Fraser's twisted imagination, his act becomes decorated in finery, instead of human despair and blood.

Second Movement: Appalling Acts

Their spirits looked upon my torture;
They drank it as it were the water of life;
With reddened cheeks, brightened eyes
The rising flame of my soul made their spirits gilt,
Like the wings of a butterfly drifting suddenly into sunlight.
And they cried to me for life, life, life.

The souls of these women “watched my ecstasy”; he imagines that his victims can discern the joy this perverted individual is experiencing as he rapes and kills them. He lessens their agony in his own mind by calling their looks “starry unconcern.” As he admits to torturing them, he converts their response to drinking “the water of life.”

Fraser describes the face of his victim as he squeezes the life out of her: she has “reddened cheeks, brightened eyes”—those eyes would be filled with terror, but he perceives a different image; he visualizes, “The rising flame of my soul made their spirits gilt.” His appalling act causes their souls to look all golden and again reminds him of butterflies “drifting suddenly into the sunlight.” All the while, they are pleading “to me for life, life, life.”

Third Movement: A Loathsome Criminal

But in taking life for myself,
In seizing and crushing their souls,
As a child crushes grapes and drinks
From its palms the purple juice,
I came to this wingless void,
Where neither red, nor gold, nor wine,
Nor the rhythm of life is known.

Fraser becomes very vivid as he describes his act of strangulation; he asserts that he crushes their souls—he seizes and crushes them, likening his despicable act to a child smashing grapes to drink the fruit juice from the palm of his hand.

The rapist/murderer cannot bring himself to confess that he is, in fact, squeezing the life out a human being’s physical body. He does not accept his victim as a human being with personhood. To him they are just disembodied “spirits” that are ripe for his taking, seizing, and crushing.

Benjamin Fraser's final admission that through taking these lives, he has arrived at his present destination that he describes as a "wingless void," a place where “neither red, nor gold, nor wine, / Nor the rhythm of life is known,” and he remains as detached as his conscience remained as he committed his loathsome crimes.

Related Edgar Lee Masters Information

• Life Sketch of Edgar Lee Masters - Edgar Lee Masters’ American classic Spoon River Anthology brought the poet into the literary spotlight, and no other work from his extensive writings has attracted more attention, including his sequel to Spoon River The New Spoon River.

Commentaries on Other Edgar Lee Masters Poems

• Edgar Lee Masters’ "The Hill" - The poem "The Hill" opens Edgar Lee Masters’ American classic Spoon River Anthology, which is told in a series of dramatic epitaphs by the deceased residents of Spoon River, an imaginary town in Illinois. The work might be considered a character study in poetry.
• Edgar Lee Masters’ "Hod Putt" - Hod Putt considered himself a loser in life, but he envied those who were successful.
• Edgar Lee Masters’ "Fiddler Jones" and "Barney Hainsfeather" - Fiddler Jones is one of the less melancholy figures of Spoon River, though he has his trials as well. Barney Hainsfeather's epitaph reveals a unique complaint of a man who laments being buried in the wrong cemetery.
• Edgar Lee Masters’ "Robert Fulton Tanner" DiscoverHubPages - Fulton is a pathetic character, who discovers that literally building a better mouse trap might only provide a cliché to fling at this thing vaguely called "Life."

The "Minerva Jones" Sequence

1. "Minerva Jones." DiscoverHubPages. The "Minerva Jones" epitaph features one of the most depraved characters of the Spoon River talking dead. She is self-absorbed and haughty, lacking empathy and self-awareness, causing her to remain ignorant of her own discordant thoughts.

2. "'Indignation' Jones." Owlcation. In the second epitaph of the "Minerva" series, the poetess’ father, "Indignation" Jones, fulminates against Spoon River society.

3. "Doctor Meyers." Owlcation. The third epitaph in the Minerva Jones series features "Doctor Meyers," who performed the abortion that led to the death of the unfortunate poetess.

4. "Mrs. Meyers." Owlcation. In the fourth epitaph in this series,"Mrs. Meyers," Dr. Meyers' wife testifies that her husband, whom she calls "poor soul," reaped what he sowed for his actions in life. The religious woman offers advice for a pleasant and peaceful life, reminding humanity to "Love God and keep his commandments."

5. "'Butch' Weldy." Owlcation. The fifth and final epitaph "'Butch' Weldy" concludes the "Minerva" series. Butch declaims about his ordeal after a work related accident—with nary a nod to Minerva.

The Pantier Sequence

1. Edgar Lee Masters’ "Benjamin Pantier" and "Mrs. Benjamin Pantier." DiscoverHubPages. - Unbridled arrogance, overweening vanity along with cowardly weakness have combined to bring about the destruction of the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Pantier. The husband appears to be weakling allowing himself to be cowed by his wife, an arrogant bully.

2. Edgar Lee Masters’ "Reuben Pantier." HubPages. - Reuben Pantier's colorful character helps dramatize the power of spiritual love for healing the mind, heart, and soul, even through the distance of miles and decades. Reuben is the son of the dysfunctional couple Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Pantier.

3. Edgar Lee Masters’ "Emily Sparks." DiscoverHubPages. - The epitaph "Emily Sparks" in Edgar Lee Masters’ American classic Spoon River Anthology is the fourth entry in the sequence of five epitaphs featuring a dysfunctional couple, their son, and the latter’s influential mentor.

4. Edgar Lee Masters' "Trainor, the Druggist." HubPages. - Edgar Lee Masters’ "Trainor, the Druggist" from the American classic Spoon River Anthology offers a final installment covering the pitiful story of the Pantiers: Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Pantier and their son Reuben.