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. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...FOR WALT WHITMAN by DAVID IGNATOW GIANT RED WOMAN by CLARENCE MAJOR THE CHANT OF THE VULTURES by EDWIN MARKHAM DOMESDAY BOOK: GOTTLIEB GERALD by EDGAR LEE MASTERS TO A SCREEN-MAKER by MARIANNE MOORE |