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...ON BRODSKY'S COLLECTED by MICHAEL S. HARPER A SONG OF COURAGE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON THE AWAKENING RIVER by KATHERINE MANSFIELD THE QUARREL by KATHERINE MANSFIELD SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: IMANUEL EHRENHARDT by EDGAR LEE MASTERS PEOPLE'S SURROUNDINGS by MARIANNE MOORE |