Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE DEATH PENALTY by FREDERIC ROWLAND MARVIN

First Line: THEY ERR WHO THINK TO SILENCE CRIME WITH CRIME
Last Line: AND ON ITS RUINS BUILD THE SCHOOL.
Subject(s): CAPITAL PUNISHMENT; CRIME & CRIMINALS; MURDER; HANGING; EXECUTIONS; DEATH PENALTY;

THEY err who think to silence crime with crime—
The axe, the scaffold, and the block
Make brutal all, and deeds of darkness fell,
Like vultures, round the gibbet flock.

The hangman makes the rogue he seeks to hang,
And "life for life" is murder's rule.
To crime repress, destroy the gallows-tree,
And on its ruins build the school.



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