Charles Warren, The Sheriff Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNHOPQRS TE UVWXYBZA2B2C2 FD2E2F2G2H2D2I2SD2J2 OD2OBOHOXOK2L2M2N2OO 2 F2P2Q2R2P2S2T2U2OV2O H2OOR2OW2OX2Y2OO Z2A3OPNOB3C3D3OOE3F3 O Z2G3O OA3CH3CCI3R2OCCJ3CK3 OOCFOCCOR2 CP2L3R2M3CR2R2N3CCR2 OOO3N3P2O CCCCK2NOCP3COL3Q3R2O R3K3R2 CCOS3K2OOR2OK3HYO R2COOT3CCOCC3CR2U3OV 3 CW3OOOE3J OCOOAR2YX3OC3N3R2OY3 COZ3C3OCCOCOPOCOCC3A P2OCOOA4B4C4OD4 CCP2PCCOC R2OCCE4CC3OF O3R2OY3COCCOOOR2F4L2 OW3CF4CX3N3NB4O N3COCM2C HOOOON3OCNH2OC3 COOOG4OCH4CI4OCP2R2 OQ3YJ4K4OWN3CN3X3CCC K3 OAOOACCB4C L4NR2OOM4N3 P2R2OCR2O OR2K4B4COFN3H4OK3CCO H CN4V3 OK3N3J4O HR2COR3AM3CR2OOO4N3C ON3CR3OAP4C P3Q4CN3R4R4N3S4OT4U4 CO

I have seen twenty men hanged hung myself	A
Two in this jail with whom I talked the night	B
Before they had the rope knotted behind	C
The ear to break the neck These two I hanged	D
One guilty and defiant taking chops	E
Four cups of coffee just an hour before	F
We swung him off the other trembling pale	G
Protesting innocence but guilty too	H
Both wore the same look in the middle watch	I
I tell you what it is You take a steer	J
And windlass him to where the butcher stands	K
With hammer ready for the blow and knife	L
To slit the throat after the hammer falls	M
Well there's a moment when the steer is standing	N
Head neck strained side ways eyes rolled side ways too	H
Fixed bright seen this way but another way	O
A film seems spreading on them That's the look	P
They wear a corpse like pallor and their tongues	Q
Are loose sprawl in their mouths lie paralyzed	R
Against their teeth or fall back in their throats	S
Which make them cough and stop for words and close	T
Dry lips with little pops	E
	-
There's something else	U
Their minds are out of them like a rubber band	V
Stretched from the place it's pinned about to break	W
And all the time they try to draw it back	X
And give it utterance with that sprawling tongue	Y
And lips too dry for words They hold it tight	B
As a woman giving birth holds to the sheet	Z
Tied to the bed's head pulls the sheet to end	A2
The agony and the reluctance of the child	B2
That pauses dreads to enter in this world	C2
	-
So was it with Fred Taylor But before	F
The high Court shook his hope he talked to me	D2
Freely and fully saying many times	E2
What could the world expect of him beside	F2
Some violence or murder He had borrowed	G2
The books his lawyers used to fight for him	H2
And read for hours and days about heredity	D2
And in our talks he said mix red and violet	I2
You have the color purple Strike two notes	S
You have a certain chord and nature made me	D2
By rules as mathematical as they use	J2
In mixing drugs or gases Then he'd say	O
Look at this table and he'd show to me	D2
A diagram of chickens how blue fowls	O
Come from a cross of black with one of white	B
With black splashed feathers Look at the blues he'd say	O
They mate and of four chickens two are blue	H
And one is black and one is white These blues	O
Produce in that proportion But the black	X
And white have chickens white and black you see	O
In equal numbers Don't you see that I	K2
Was caught in mathematics jotted down	L2
Upon a slate before I came to earth	M2
They could have picked my forbears on a slate	N2
Forecast my soul its tendencies if they	O
Had been that devilish And so he talked	O2
	-
Well then he heard that Elenor Murray died	F2
And told me that her grandmother that woman	P2
Known for her queerness and her lively soul	Q2
To eighty years and more was grandmother	R2
To his father and this Elenor Murray cousin	P2
To his father There you have it he exclaimed	S2
She killed herself and I know why he said	T2
She loved someone This love is in our blood	U2
And overflows or spurts between the logs	O
You dam it with or fully stayed grows green	V2
With summer scum breeds frogs and spotted snakes	O
	-
He was a study and I studied him	H2
I'd sit beside his cell and read some words	O
From his confession ask why did you this	O
His crime was monstrous but he won me over	R2
I wished to help the boy for boy he was	O
Just nineteen and I pitied him At last	W2
His story seemed as clear as when you see	O
The truth behind poor words that say as much	X2
As words can say you see you get the truth	Y2
And know it even if you never pass	O
The truth to others	O
	-
Lord This girl he killed	Z2
Knew not the power she played with Why she sat	A3
Like a child upon the asp's nest picking flowers	O
Or as a child will pet a mad dog Look	P
You come into my life what do you bring	N
Why everything that made your life all pains	O
All raptures disappointments wisdom learned	B3
You bring to me But do you show them no	C3
You hide them maybe some of them and leave	D3
Myself to learn you by the hardest means	O
And bing A something in you or in me	O
Out of a past explodes or better still	E3
Extends a claw from out the buttoned coat	F3
And rips a face	O
	-
So this poor girl was killed	Z2
And by an innocent coquetry evoked	G3
The claw that tore her breast away	O
	-
One day	O
As I passed by his cell I stopped and sat	A3
What was the first thing entering in your mind	C
From which you trace your act And he said Well	H3
Almost from the beginning all my mind	C
Was on her from the moment I awaked	C
Until I slept and often I awoke	I3
At two or three o'clock with thoughts of her	R2
And through the day I thought of nothing else	O
Sometimes I could not eat At school my thought	C
Stretched out of me to her could not be pulled	C
Back to the lesson I could read a page	J3
As it were Greek not understand a word	C
But just the moment I was with her then	K3
My soul re entered me I was at peace	O
And happy oh so happy In the days	O
When we were separated my unrest	C
Took this form that I must be with her or	F
If that could not be then some other place	O
Was better than the place I was I strained	C
Lived in a constant strain found no content	C
With anything or place could find no peace	O
Except with her	R2
	-
Right from the first I had	C
Two minds two hearts concerning her and one	P2
Was confidence and one was doubt one love	L3
One hatred And one purpose was to serve her	R2
Guard her and care for her one said destroy	M3
Ruin or kill her Sitting by her side	C
Except as I shall say I loved her trusted her	R2
Away from her I doubted her and hated her	R2
But at the dances when I saw her smile	N3
Up at another man the storming blood	C
Roared in my brain for wondering about	C
The words they said He might be holding her	R2
Too close to him or as I watched I saw	O
His knee indent her skirt between her knees	O
That might be when she smiled Then going home	O3
I'd ask her what he said She'd only smile	N3
And keep a silence that I could not open	P2
With any pry of questions	O
	-
Well we quarreled	C
About this boy she danced with So I said	C
I'll leave her never see her I'll go find	C
Another girl forget her Sunday next	C
I saw her driving with this fellow I	K2
Was walking in the road they passed me laughing	N
She turned about and waved her hand at me	O
That night I lay awake and tossed and thought	C
Where are they now What are they doing now	P3
He's kissing her upon the lips I've kissed	C
Or worse perhaps I have been fooled she lies	O
Within his arms and gives him what for love	L3
I never asked her never dared to ask	Q3
This brought Fred Taylor's story to the murder	R2
In point of madness anyway Some business	O
Broke in our visit here Another time	R3
I sat with him and questioned him again	K3
About the night he killed her	R2
	-
Well he said	C
I told you that we quarreled So I fought	C
To free myself of thought of her no use	O
I tried another girl it wouldn't work	S3
For at the dance I took this girl to I	K2
Saw Gertrude with this fellow and the madness	O
Came over me in blackness hurricanes	O
Until I found myself in front of her	R2
Where she was seated asking for a dance	O
She smiled and rose and danced with me And then	K3
As the dance ended May I come to see you	H
I'm sorry for my words came from my tongue	Y
In spite of will She laughed and said to me	O
'If you'll behave yourself '	-
	-
I went to see her	R2
But came away more wretched than I went	C
She seemed to have sweet secrets in her silence	O
And eyes too calm the secrets hid themselves	O
At first I could not summon up the strength	T3
To ask her questions but at last I did	C
And then she only shook her head and laughed	C
And spoke of something else She had a way	O
Of mixing up the subjects till my mind	C
Forgot the very thing I wished to know	C3
Or dulled its edges so if I remembered	C
I could not ask it so to bring the answer	R2
I wished from her I came away so weak	U3
I scarce could walk fell into sleep at once	O
But woke at three o'clock and could not sleep	V3
	-
Before this quarrel we had been engaged	C
And at this evening's end I brought it up	W3
'What shall we do Are you engaged to me	O
Will you renew it ' And she said to me	O
'We still are young it's better to be free	O
Let's play and dance Be gay for if you will	E3
I'll go with you but when you're gloomy dear	J
You are not company for a girl '	-
	-
Dear me	O
Here was I five feet nine and could have crushed	C
Her little body with my giant arms	O
And yet in strength that counts the mind that moves	O
The body but much more can move itself	A
And other minds she was a spirit power	R2
And I but just a derrick slowly swung	Y
By an engine smaller noisy with its chug	X3
And cloudy with its smoke bituminous	O
That night however she engaged to go	C3
To dance with me a week hence But meanwhile	N3
The hellish thing comes on the morning after	R2
Thus chum of mine who testified John Luce	O
Came to me with the story that this man	Y3
That Gertrude danced with told him O my God	C
That Gertrude hinted she would come across	O
Give him the final bliss That was the proof	Z3
They brought out in the trial as you know	C3
The fellow said it damn him whether she	O
Made such a promise who knows Would to God	C
I knew before you hang me There I stood	C
And heard this story felt my arteries	O
Lock as you'd let canal gates down my heart	C
Beat for deliverance from the bolted streams	O
That night I could not sleep but found a book	P
Just think of this for fate Under my eyes	O
There comes an ancient story out of Egypt	C
Thyamis fearing he would die and lose	O
The lovely Chariclea strikes her dead	C
Then kills himself some thousands of years ago	C3
It's all forgotten now I say to self	A
Who cares what matters it the thing was done	P2
And served its end The story stuck with me	O
But the next night and the next night I stole out	C
To spy on Gertrude by the path in the grass	O
Lay for long hours And on the third night saw	O
At half past eight or nine this fellow come	A4
And take her walking in the darkness where	B4
I could have touched them as they walked the path	C4
But could not follow for the moon which rose	O
Besides I lost them	D4
	-
Well the time approached	C
Of the dance and still I brooded then resolved	C
My hatred now was level with the cauldron	P2
With bubbles crackling So the spade I took	P
Hidden beneath the seat may show forethought	C
They caught the jury with that argument	C
And forethought does it show but who made me	O
To have such forethought	C
	-
Then I called for her	R2
And took her to the dance I was most gay	O
Because the load was lifted from my mind	C
And I had found relief And so we danced	C
And she danced with this fellow I was calm	E4
Believed somehow he had not had her yet	C
And if his knee touched hers why let it go	C3
Nothing beyond shall happen even this	O
Shall not be any more	F
	-
We started home	O3
Before we reached that clump of woods I asked her	R2
If she would marry me She laughed at me	O
I asked her if she loved that other man	Y3
She said you are a silly boy and laughed	C
And then I asked her if she'd marry me	O
And if she would not why she would not do it	C
We came up to the woods and she was silent	C
I could not make her speak I stopped the horse	O
She sat all quiet I could see her face	O
Under the brilliance of the moon I saw	O
A thin smile on her face and then I struck her	R2
And from the floor grabbed up the iron wrench	F4
And struck her took her out and laid her down	L2
And did what was too horrible they say	O
To do and keep my life To finish up	W3
I reached back for the iron wrench first felt	C
Her breast to find her heart no use of wrench	F4
She was already dead I took the spade	C
Scraped off the leaves between two trees and dug	X3
And buried her and said 'My Chariclea	N3
No man shall have you ' Then I drove till morning	N
And after some days reached Missouri where	B4
They caught me	O
	-
So Fred Taylor told me all	N3
Filled in the full confession that he made	C
And which they used in court with looks and words	O
Scarce to be reproduced but to the last	C
He said the mathematics of his birth	M2
Accounted for his deed	C
	-
Is it not true	H
If you resolved the question that the jury	O
Resolved did he know right from wrong did he	O
Know what he did the jury answered truly	O
To give the rope to him Or if you say	O
These mathematics may be true and still	N3
A man like that is better out of way	O
And saying so become the very spirit	C
And reason which slew Gertrude disregarding	N
The devil of heredity which clutched him	H2
As he put by the reason we obey	O
It may be well enough I do not know	C3
	-
Now for last night before this morning fixed	C
To swing him off His lawyers went to see	O
The governor to win reprieval perhaps	O
A commutation I could see his eyes	O
Had two lights in them one was like a lantern	G4
With the globe greased which showed he could not see	O
Himself in death tomorrow what is that	C
In the soul that cannot see itself in death	H4
No to morrow continuation the wall the end	C
And yet this very smear upon the globe	I4
Was death's half fleshless hand which rubbed across	O
His senses and his hope The other light	C
Was weirdly bright for terror expectation	P2
Of good news from the governor	R2
	-
For his lawyers	O
Were in these hours petitioning He would ask	Q3
No news No word What is the time His tongue	Y
Would fall back in his throat we saw the strain	J4
Of his stretched soul He'd sit upon his couch	K4
Hands clasped head down Arise and hold the bars	O
Himself fling on the couch face down and shake	W
But when he heard the hammers ring that nail	N3
The scaffold into shape he whirled around	C
Like a rat in a cage And when the sand bag fell	N3
That tested out the rope a muffled thug	X3
And the rope creaked he started up and moaned	C
You're getting ready and his body shivered	C
His white hands could not hold the bars he reeled	C
And fell upon the couch again	K3
	-
Suppose	O
There was no whiskey and no morphia	A
Except for what the parsons think fit use	O
A poor weak fellow not a Socrates	O
Must march the gallows walk with every nerve	A
Up bristled like a hair in fright This night	C
Was much too horrible for me At last	C
I had the doctor dope him unaware	B4
And for a time he slept	C
	-
But when the dawn	L4
Looked through the little windows near the ceiling	N
Cob webbed and grimed with light like sanded water	R2
And echoes started in the corridors	O
Of feet and objects moved then all at once	O
He sprang up from his sleep and gave a groan	M4
Half yell that shook us all	N3
	-
A clergyman	P2
Came soon to pray with him and he grew calmer	R2
And said O pray for her but pray for me	O
That I may see her when this riddle world	C
No longer stands between us slipped from her	R2
And soon from me	O
	-
For breakfast he took coffee	O
A piece of toast no more The sickening hour	R2
Approaches he is sitting on his couch	K4
Bent over head in hands dazed or in prayer	B4
My deputy reads the warrant while I stand	C
At one side so to hear but not to see	O
And then my clerk comes quickly through the door	F
That opens from the office in the jail	N3
Runs up the iron steps all out of breath	H4
And almost shouts The governor telephones	O
To stop the sentence is commuted Then	K3
I grew as weak as the culprit took the warrant	C
And stepped up to the cell's door coughed inhaled	C
And after getting breath I said Good news	O
The governor has saved you	H
	-
Then he laughed	C
Half fell against the bars and like a rag	N4
Sank in a heap	V3
	-
I don't know to this day	O
What moved the governor For crazy men	K3
Are hanged sometimes To day he leaves the jail	N3
We take him where the criminal insane	J4
Are housed at our expense	O
	-
	-
	-
So Merival heard the sheriff As he knew	H
The governor's mind and how the governor	R2
Gave heed to public thought or what is deemed	C
The public thought what's printed in the press	O
He wondered at the governor For no crime	R3
Had stirred the county like this crime And if	A
A jury and the courts adjudged this boy	M3
Of nineteen in his mind what was the right	C
Of interference by the governor	R2
So Merival was puzzled They were chums	O
The governor and Merival in old days	O
Had known club life together ate and drank	O4
Together in the days when Merival	N3
Came to Chicago living down the hurt	C
He took from her who left him In those days	O
The governor was struggling Merival	N3
Had helped with friends and purse and later helped	C
The governor's ambition from the time	R3
He went to congress So the two were friends	O
With memories and secrets for the stuff	A
Of friendship glad renewal of the surge	P4
Of lasting friendship when they met	C
	-
And now	P3
He sensed a secret meant to bring it forth	Q4
And telegraphed the governor who said	C
I'll see you in Chicago Merival	N3
Went up to see the governor and talk	R4
They had not met for months for leisured talk	R4
And now the governor said I'll tell you all	N3
And make it like a drama I'll bring in	S4
My wife who figured in this murder case	O
It was this way It's nearly one o'clock	T4
I'm back from hearing lawyers plead I wish	U4
To make this vivid so you'll get my mind	C
I tell you what I said to her It's this	O

Edgar Lee Masters

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