# Lucinda Matlock — Spoon River Anthology character guide

> Lucinda Matlock in Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters.

**Role:** supporting

**First appearance:** 0209-lucinda-matlock

## Snapshot

Ninety-six years of spinning, weaving, childbearing, and dancing—she outlived seven of her twelve children and still called life sweet.

## Who they are

Lucinda Matlock married Thomas and settled into a long life of household labor—spinning, weaving, baking, raising twelve children, burying seven of them. She danced at the firemen's ball at eighty, and when old age finally tired her, she let go without bitterness. Her epitaph is the anthology's great counterweight: against the town's suicides, scandals, and grievances, she insists that life was sweet and that it takes life to love Life.

## In the story

### [Spoon River Anthology](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/spoon_river_anthology_se/chapters/spoon-river-anthology)

A voice of resilience who reflects on a long life of hard work and loss, challenging the younger generation's complaints.

### [Lucinda Matlock](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/spoon_river_anthology_se/chapters/lucinda-matlock)

Narrator of the poem, recounting her long life and philosophy of resilience.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/spoon_river_anthology_se/characters/lucinda_matlock
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/spoon_river_anthology_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/spoon_river_anthology_se/characters