The Governor Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJFKGLMNOPQR STUVIWXYZJHJNA2A2XIB 2C2ND2NE2F2G2CH2I2J2 K2L2HDIM2GBN2O2A2XII P2Q2R2S2 T2JIU2V2W2X2Y2P2 VZ2XA3VS2B3C3ZD3CE3S 2F3G3H3I3J3IK3L3JM3G E2A2N3 S2O3VAI2M3P3A2FE2Q3E VR3S3L3 IIJ M2T3U3IV3FW3IS3IIS3X 3Y3IV2W3L3Z3A4B4Q3G3 C4L3S3KV2I2D4E4F4G4H 4QIF4I4VVN3J4VL3 K4P3GL4M4SA2GN4 EIG4S3

I'm home at last How long were you asleepA
I startled you The time It's midnight pastB
Put on your slippers and your robe my dearC
And make some coffee for me what a nightD
Yes tell you I shall tell you everythingE
I must tell someone and a wife should knowF
The workings of a governor's mind no oneG
Could guess what turned the scale to save this manH
Who would have died to morrow but for meI
That's fine This coffee helps me As I saidJ
This night has been a trial Well you knowF
I told these lawyers they could come at eightK
And so they came A seasoned lawyer oneG
The other young and radical both fullL
Of sentiment of some sort And there you sitM
And do not say a word of disapprovalN
You smile which means you sun yourself withinO
The power I have and yet do you approveP
This man committed brutal murder didQ
A nameless horror now he's saved from deathR
The father and the mother of the girlS
The neighborhood perhaps in which she livedT
Will roar against me think that I was boughtU
Or used by someone I'm indebted toV
In politics Oh no It's really funnyI
Since it is simpler than such things as theseW
And no one saving you shall know the secretX
For there I sat and didn't say a wordY
To indicate betray my thought not whenZ
The thing came out that moved me Let them readJ
The doctor's affidavits that this manH
Was crazy when he killed the girl and readJ
The transcript of the evidence on the trialN
They read and talked At last the younger lawyerA2
For sometime still kept silent by the otherA2
Pops out with something reads an affidavitX
As foreign to the matter as a storyI
Of melodrama color on the screenB2
Which still contained a sentence that went homeC2
I felt my mind turn like a turn tableN
And click as when the switchman kicks the tongueD2
Of steel into the slot that holds the tableN
And from my mind the engine that's the problemE2
Puffed puffed and moved away out on the trackF2
And disappeared upon its business HowG2
Is that for metaphor Your coffee dearC
Stirs up my fancy But to tell the restH2
If my face changed expression or my eyeI2
Betrayed my thought then I have no controlJ2
Of outward seeming For they argued onK2
An hour or so thereafter And I askedL2
Re reading of the transcript where this manH
Told of his maniac passion of the nightD
He killed the girl the doctors' testimonyI
I had re read and let these lawyers thinkM2
My interest centered there and my decisionG
Was based upon such matters and at lastB
The penalty commuted When in truthN2
I tell you I had let the fellow hangO2
For all of this except that I took fireA2
Because of something in this affidavitX
Irrelevant to the issue reaching meI
In something only relevant to meI
O well all life is such Our great decisionsP2
Flame out of sparks where roaring fires beforeQ2
Not touching our combustibles wholly failedR2
To flame or light usS2
-
Now the secret hearT2
Do you remember all the books I readJ
Two years ago upon heredityI
Foot notes to evolution the dynamicsU2
Of living matter Well it wasn't thatV2
That made me save this fellow There you smileW2
For knowing how and when I got these booksX2
Who woke my interest in them Never mindY2
You don't know yet my reasonsP2
-
But I'll tell youV
And let you see a governor's mind at workZ2
When this young lawyer in this affidavitX
Read to a certain place my mind strayed offA3
And lived a time past you were present tooV
It was that morning when I passed my crisisS2
Had just dodged death could scarcely speak too weakB3
To lift a hand to feed myself but neededC3
Vital replenishment of strength and thenZ
I got it in a bowl of oyster soupD3
Rich cream at that And as I live my dearC
As this young lawyer read I felt myselfE3
In bed as I lay then re lived the weaknessS2
Could see the spoon that carried to my mouthF3
The appetizing soup imagined thereG3
The feelings I had then of getting fingersH3
Upon the rail of life again how faintI3
But with such clear degrees Could see the handJ3
That held the spoon the eyes that looked at meI
In triumph for the victory of my strengthK3
Which battled almost lost the prize of lifeL3
It all came over me when this lawyer readJ
Elenor Murray lately come from FranceM3
Found dead beside the river was the cousinG
Of this Fred Taylor and had planned to comeE2
To see the governor death prevented herA2
Suppose it hadN3
-
That affidavit doubtlessS2
Was read to me to move me for the factO3
This man was kindred to a woman whoV
Served in the war this lawyer was that cheapA
And isn't it as cheap to think that II2
Could be persuaded by the circumstanceM3
That Elenor Murray she who nursed me onceP3
Was cousin to this fellow if this lawyerA2
Knew this and did he know it I don't knowF
Had Elenor Murray lived she would have comeE2
To ask her cousin's life I know her heartQ3
And at the last I think this was the thingE
I thought I'd do exactly what I'd doV
If she had lived and asked me disregardR3
Her death and act as if she lived repayS3
Her dead hands which in life had saved my lifeL3
-
Now dear your eyes have tears I know believe meI
I had no romance with this Elenor MurrayI
Good Lord it's one o'clock I must to bedJ
-
You get my story Merival Do you thinkM2
A softness in the heart went to the brainT3
And softened that Well now I stress two thingsU3
I can't endure defeat nor bear to seeI
An ardent spirit thwarted What I've achievedV3
Has been through will that would not bend and soF
To see that in another wins my loveW3
And my support Now take this Elenor MurrayI
She had a will like mine she worked her wayS3
As I have done And just to hear that sheI
Had planned to see me ask for clemencyI
For this condemned degenerate made me sayS3
Shall I let death defeat her Take the breachX3
And make her death no matter in my courseY3
For as I live if she had come to meI
I had done that I did And why was thatV2
No romance Never that Yet human loveW3
As friend can keep for friend in this our lifeL3
I felt for Elenor Murray and for thisZ3
It was her will that would not take defeatA4
Devotion to her work and in my caseB4
This depth of friendship welling in her heartQ3
For human beings that I shared in thereG3
Gave tireless healing to her nursing handsC4
And saved my life And for a life a lifeL3
This criminal will live some years we'll sayS3
Were better dead All right He'll cost the stateK
Say twenty thousand dollars What is thatV2
Contrasted with the cost to me if II2
Had let him hang There is a bank accountD4
Economies in the realm of thought to watchE4
And don't you think the souls let's call them soulsF4
Of these avenging law abiding folkG4
These souls of the community all in allH4
Will be improved for hearing that I didQ
A human thing and profit more therefromI
Than though that sense of balance in their soulsF4
Struck for the thought of crime avenged the lawI4
Fulfilled and vindicated Yes it's trueV
And Merival spoke up and said It's trueV
I understand your story and I'm gladN3
It's like you and I'll tell my jury firstJ4
And they will scatter it what moved in youV
And how this Elenor Murray saved a lifeL3
-
-
-
The talk of waste in human life was constantK4
As Coroner Merival took evidenceP3
At Elenor Murray's inquest EveryoneG
Could think of waste in some one's life as wellL4
As in his ownM4
John Scofield knew the girlS
Had worked for Arthur Fouche her grandfatherA2
And knew what course his life took how his fortuneG
Was wasted dwindled downN4
-
RememberingE
A talk he heard between this Elenor MurrayI
And Arthur Fouche her grandfather he spokeG4
To Coroner Merival on the street one dayS3

Edgar Lee Masters



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