The Circuit Judge

Edgar Lee Masters 1868 (Garnett) – 1950 (Elkins Park)



Take note, passers-by, of the sharp erosions
Eaten in my head-stone by the wind and rain --
Almost as if an intangible Nemesis or hatred
Were marking scores against me,
But to destroy, and not preserve, my memory.
I in life was the Circuit judge, a maker of notches,
Deciding cases on the points the lawyers scored,
Not on the right of the matter.
O wind and rain, leave my head-stone alone!
For worse than the anger of the wronged,
The curses of the poor,
Was to lie speechless, yet with vision clear,
Seeing that even Hod Putt, the murderer,
Hanged by my sentence,
Was innocent in soul compared with me.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

33 sec read
77

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABCDDAEFGHIJFAD
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 599
Words 113
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 15

Edgar Lee Masters

Edgar Lee Masters was an American poet, biographer, and dramatist. more…

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