Elsa Wertman By Edgar Lee Masters

This poem by Edgar Lee Masters was the first poem that we were assigned to read that I actually understood what it was talking about after the first time I read it! I was very excited because it is a very interesting poem about a young woman getting pregnant and giving away her child. It was clear to me that the girl was very ashamed for getting pregnant and Mrs. Greene agreed to adopt it. Mrs. Greene was very clever about the pregnancy by spreading rumors by saying that she was the one that was pregnant and locked herself at her house in order to make it seem believable. In the end, the boy that was born turns out to grow up to be a powerful political leader and the young women who gave him away seems to feel guilty about it. “That’s my son! That’s my son!” is what the woman wants to yell when she sees what could have been her son has grown up to be (line 24). The ending is very sad because you can sense the regret the woman feels for giving up her child.