171 lines
5.1 KiB
Markdown
171 lines
5.1 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: The Hangman
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tags:
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- authorship/other
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- exclude-from-word-count
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- status/complete
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- type/media/poetry
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author: Maurice Ogden
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year: 1951
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up: "[[poetry]]"
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---
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# The Hangman
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## 1.
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Into our town the Hangman came \
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Smelling of gold and blood and flame--- \
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And he paced our bricks with a diffident air \
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And built his frame on the courthouse square.
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The scaffold stood by the courthouse side, \
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Only as wide as the door was wide; \
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A frame as tall, or little more, \
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Than the capping sill of the courthouse door.
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And we wondered, whenever we had the time, \
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Who the criminal, what the crime, \
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The Hangman judged with the yellow twist \
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Of knotted hemp in his busy fist.
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And innocent though we were, with dread \
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We passed those eyes of buckshot lead; \
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Till one cried: "Hangman, who is he \
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For whom you raise the gallows-tree?"
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Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye, \
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And he gave us a riddle instead of reply: \
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"He who serves me best," said he, \
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"Shall earn the rope on the gallows-tree."
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And he stepped down, and laid his hand \
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On a man who came from another land. \
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And we breathed again, for another's grief \
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At the Hangman's hand was our relief.
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And the gallows-frame on the courthouse lawn \
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By tomorrow's sun would be struck and gone. \
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So we gave him way, and no one spoke, \
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Out of respect for his hangman's cloak.
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## 2.
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The next day's sun looked mildly down \
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On roof and street in our quiet town \
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And, stark and black in the morning air, \
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The gallows-tree on the courthouse square.
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And the Hangman stood at his usual stand \
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With the yellow hemp in his busy hand; \
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With his buckshot eye and his jaw like a pike \
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And his air so knowing and businesslike.
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And we cried: "Hangman, have you not done, \
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Yesterday, with the alien one?" \
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Then we fell silent, and stood amazed: \
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"Oh, not for him was the gallows raised . . ."
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He laughed a laugh as he looked at us: \
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" . . . Did you think I'd gone to all this fuss \
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To hang one man? That's a thing I do \
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To stretch the rope when the rope is new."
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Then one cried "Murderer!" One cried "Shame!" \
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And into our midst the Hangman came \
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To that man's place. "Do you hold," said he, \
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With him that's meant for the gallows-tree?"
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And he laid his hand on that one's arm, \
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And we shrank back in quick alarm, \
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And we gave him way, and no one spoke \
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Out of fear of his hangman's cloak.
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That night we saw with dread surprise \
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The Hangman's scaffold had grown in size. \
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Fed by the blood beneath the chute \
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The gallows-tree had taken root.
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Now as wide, or a little more, \
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Than the steps that led to the courthouse door, \
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As tall as the writing, or nearly as tall, \
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Halfway up on the courthouse wall.
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## 3.
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The third he took---and we had all heard tell--- \
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Was a usurer and infidel. And: \
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"What," said the Hangman, "have you to do \
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With the gallows-bound, and he a Jew?"
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And we cried out: "Is this one he \
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Who has served you well and faithfully?" \
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The Hangman smiled: "It's a clever scheme \
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To try the strength of the gallows-beam."
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The fourth man's dark, accusing song \
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Had scratched out comfort hard and long; \
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And "What concern," he gave us back, \
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"Have you for the doomed---the doomed and black?"
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The fifth. The sixth. And we cried again: \
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"Hangman, Hangman, is this the man?" \
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"It's a trick," he said, "that we hangmen know \
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For easing the trap when the trap springs slow."
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And so we ceased and asked no more, \
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As the Hangman tallied his bloody score; \
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And sun by sun, and night by night, \
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The gallows grew to monstrous height.
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The wings of the scaffold opened wide \
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Till they covered the square from side to side; \
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And the monster cross-beam, looking down, \
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Cast its shadow across the town.
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## 4.
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Then through the town the Hangman came \
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And called in the empty streets my name, \
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And I looked at the gallows soaring tall \
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And thought: "There is no one left at all
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For hanging, and so he calls to me \
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To help him pull down the gallows-tree." \
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And I went out with right good hope \
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To the Hangman's tree and the Hangman's rope.
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He smiled at me as I came down \
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To the courthouse square through the silent town, \
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And supple and stretched in his busy hand \
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Was the yellow twist of the hempen strand.
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And he whistled his tune as he tried the trap \
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And it sprang down with a ready snap--- \
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And then with a smile of awful command \
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He laid his hand upon my hand.
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"You tricked me, Hangman!" I shouted then, \
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"That your scaffold was built for other men . . . \
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And I no henchman of yours," I cried. \
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"You lied to me, Hangman, foully lied!"
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Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye: \
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"Lied to you? Tricked you?" he said, "Not I. \
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For I answered straight and I told you true: \
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The scaffold was raised for none but you."
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"For who has served me more faithfully \
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Than you with your coward's hope?" said he, \
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"And where are the others that might have stood \
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Side by your side in the common good?"
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"Dead," I whispered: and amiably, \
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"Murdered," the Hangman corrected me; \
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"First the alien, then the Jew . . . \
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I did no more than you let me do."
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Beneath the beam that blocked the sky, \
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None had stood so alone as I--- \
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And the Hangman strapped me, and no voice there \
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Cried "Stay!" for me in the empty square.
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