SILENT before the jury, Returning no word to the judge when he asked me If I had aught to say against the sentence, Only shaking my head. What could I say to people who thought That a woman of thirty-five was at fault When her lover of nineteen killed her husband? Even though she had said to him over and over, "Go away, Elmer, go far away, I have maddened your brain with the gift of my body: You will do some terrible thing." And just as I feared, he killed my husband; With which I had nothing to do, before God! Silent for thirty years in prison! And the iron gates of Joliet Swung as the gray and silent trusties Carried me out in a coffin. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE FOUNTAIN by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL THE PERSIANS (PERSAE): XERXES DEFEATED by AESCHYLUS FOUR SONNETS: 1 by FRANK DAVIS ASHBURN THE CLOAK by ANNA LOUISE BARNEY A BALLADE OF COLLEGE GIRLS by F. R. BATCHELDER GOLD AND STEEL; THE ANSWER by LOUISA SARAH BEVINGTON PSALM 120 by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE |