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...HOW TO BE A POET (TO REMIND MYSELF) by WENDELL BERRY MISSING THE BO IN THE HENHOUSE by HAYDEN CARRUTH THE EXISTING POOL by HAYDEN CARRUTH THE IMPOSSIBLE INDISPENSIBILITY OF THE ARS POETICA by HAYDEN CARRUTH A MAN'S VOCATION IS NOBODY'S BUSINESS by JAMES GALVIN COSMOPOLITE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON SUGGESTED BY THE COVER OF A VOLUME OF KEATS'S POEMS by AMY LOWELL |