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...CAPPER KAPLINSKI AT THE NORTH SIDE CUE CLUB by HAYDEN CARRUTH TO SEE THE STARS IN DAYLIGHT by JAMES GALVIN THE NEW APOCRYPHA: THE FIG TREE by EDGAR LEE MASTERS ANOTHER DARK LADY by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON BUCOLIC COMEDY: KING COPHETUA AND THE BEGGAR MAID by EDITH SITWELL |