Since the time of Blackstone鈥檚 鈥淔arewell,鈥 poetry has been seen as celestial, pastoral, solitary, and mellifluous; law as venerable, social, urban, and cacophonous. This perception has persisted even to the present, with the bourgeoning field of law and literature focusing almost exclusively on fiction and drama. Poetry of the Law, however, reveals the richness of poetry about the law.
Poetry of the Law is the first serious anthology of law-related poetry ever published in the United States. As the editors make clear, though, serious need not imply solemn. Instead, David Kader and Michael Stanford have assembled a surprisingly capacious collection of 100 poems from the 1300s to the present.
Set in courtrooms, lawyers鈥 offices, law-school classrooms and judges鈥 chambers; peopled with attorneys, the imprisoned (both innocent and guilty), judges, jurors, witnesses and law-enforcement officers; based on real events (think 鈥淪cottsboro鈥) or exploring the complexity of abstract legal ideas; the poems celebrate justice or decry the lack of it, range in tone from witty to wry, sad to celebratory, funny to infuriating. Poetry of the Law is destined to become an authoritative source for years to come.
鈥淯ntil now there has been nothing like this collection. The poems included here have depth, both chronologically and topically, and Kader and Stanford have written an introduction that will appeal to scholars and nonscholars alike. I admire their choice of which poems to include and think that their discussion of why the book is necessary is intelligent and will whet the appetite of any reader.鈥濃擫. H. LaRue, author, Constitutional Law as Fiction: Narrative in the Rhetoric of Authority
W. H. Auden
Robert Burns
Lewis Carroll
John Ciardi
Daniel Defoe
Emily Dickinson
John Donne
Rita Dove
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Mart铆n Espada
Thomas Hardy
Seamus Heaney
A. E. Housman
Langston Hughes
Ben Jonson
X. J. Kennedy
Yusef Komunyakaa
Ted Kooser
D. H. Lawrence
Edgar Lee Masters
W. S. Merwin
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Sir Walter Raleigh
Muriel Rukeyser
Carl Sandburg
William Shakespeare
Jonathan Swift
Mona Van Duyn
Oscar Wilde
William Carlos Williams
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction xiii
from the general prologue to The Canterbury Tales
Geoffrey Chaucer 1
Tydingis fra the Sessioun William Dunbar 2
from Book 5, Canto 9, The Faerie Queene Edmund Spenser 4
Th e Passionate Man鈥檚 Pilgrimage Sir Walter Raleigh 8
Sonnet 35 William Shakespeare 10
Sonnet 49 William Shakespeare 11
Sonnet 134 William Shakespeare 12
Into the Middle Temple of My Heart Sir John Davies 13
An Epigram to the Counsellor Ben Jonson 14
Satire 2 John Donne 16
Satire 5 John Donne 20
Arraigned, Poor Captive Bartholomew Griffin 23
Upon Case Robert Herrick 24
Meditation 38: An Advocate with the Father Edward Taylor 25
from 鈥淎 Hymn to the Pillory鈥 Daniel Defoe 27
The Answer to 鈥淧aulus鈥 Jonathan Swift 30
Verbatim from Boileau Alexander Pope 35
The Lawyer鈥檚 Farewell to His Muse Sir William Blackstone 36
The Cause Won William Cowper 40
The Rising of the Session Robert Fergusson 41
from 鈥淧rofessions鈥擫aw鈥 George Crabbe 44
Extempore in the Court of Session Robert Burns 47
from Sonnets upon the Punishment of Death, IV
William Wordsworth 48
from Sonnets upon the Punishment of Death, VI
William Wordsworth 49
I5214.indb vii 11/25/09 7:57:19 AM
from Sonnets upon the Punishment of Death, VIII
William Wordsworth 50
from Sonnets upon the Punishment of Death, XI
William Wordsworth 51
from Canto 10, Don Juan George Gordon, Lord Byron 52
To the Lord Chancellor Percy Bysshe Shelley 53
Hamatreya Ralph Waldo Emerson 56
Th e Gallows John Greenleaf Whittier 59
from Book 5, Th e Ring and the Book Robert Browning 63
Thought Walt Whitman 65
You Felons on Trial in Courts Walt Whitman 66
I Read My Sentence Steadily Emily Dickinson 67
I Had Some Things That I Called Mine Emily Dickinson 68
The Barrister鈥檚 Dream Lewis Carroll 69
The Mock Wife Thomas Hardy 72
from Th e Ballad of Reading Gaol Oscar Wilde 74
Oh Who Is That Young Sinner A. E. Housman 75
The Reeds of Runnymede Rudyard Kipling 76
鈥淏utch鈥 Weldy Edgar Lee Masters 78
Judge Selah Lively Edgar Lee Masters 79
State鈥檚 Attorney Fallas Edgar Lee Masters 80
Carl Hamblin Edgar Lee Masters 81
The Inquest W. H. Davies 82
In the Dock Walter de la Mare 84
The Lawyers Know Too Much Carl Sandburg 85
Impromptu: The Suckers William Carlos Williams 86
Auto-da-F茅 D. H. Lawrence 89
Justice Denied in Massachusetts Edna St. Vincent Millay 91
from 鈥淓arly History of a Writer鈥 Charles Reznikoff 93
from John Brown鈥檚 Body Stephen Vincent Ben茅t 97
To Edwin V. McKenzie Yvor Winters 103
The People v. The People Kenneth Fearing 104
The Town of Scottsboro Langston Hughes 106
Legal Fiction William Empson 107
Law Like Love W. H. Auden 108
The Judge Is Fury J. V. Cunningham 110
The Verdict Roy Fuller 111
The Trial Muriel Rukeyser 112
The Hand That Signed the Paper Dylan Thomas 115
Dreamsong 86 John Berryman 116
After the Trial Weldon Kees 117
The Law Has Reasons David Ignatow 119
E Is for Earwig John Ciardi 120
In a Corridor at Court Miriam Waddington 121
Law Robert Lowell 122
The Poet Reconciles Herself to Politicians Mona Van Duyn 123
Defendant Alan Dugan 124
Death the Judge Anthony Hecht 125
Strip: 55 A. R. Ammons 126
At the Executed Murderer鈥檚 Grave James Wright 128
Tool W. S. Merwin 131
Ignorance of the Law Is No Excuse John Ashbery 132
Possession Philip Levine 133
Tailor-Made John Hollander 134
Legal Reform Thom Gunn 135
Police Court Saturday Morning X. J. Kennedy 137
What I Am Trying to Say Charles Wright 138
At the Night Court Charles Simic 139
Criminal Stephen Dunn 140
Outlaw Stephen Dunn 141
History Stephen Dunn 142
The Witness Ted Kooser 144
Punishment Seamus Heaney 145
The Stone Verdict Seamus Heaney 147
Wittgenstein at Chess David Solway 148
The Woods in New Jersey Robert Hass 151
Negligence William Matthews 152
This Week the Court Is Sleeping in Loughrea Paul Durcan 154
The Hanging Judge Eavan Boland 155
Traveling Exhibit of Torture Instruments Thomas Lux 157
Light on the Subject Yusef Komunyakaa 158
Admissions against Interest Lawrence Joseph 159
Twelve Chairs Rita Dove 163
Law Clerk, 1979 Brad Leithauser 168
Mi Vida: Wings of Fright Mart铆n Espada 174
The Legal Aid Lawyer Has an Epiphany Mart铆n Espada 175
The Sentence Glyn Maxwell 176
If You Ask Your Attorney to Be Concise Seth Abramson 177
Notes on Poems and Poets 179
Permissions 191
Index 196
From 鈥淭he Hanging Judge鈥 by Eavan Boland
Come to the country where justice is seen to be done,
Done daily. Come to the country where
Sentence is passed by word of mouth and raw
Boys split like infinitives. Look, here
We hanged our son, our only son
And hang him still and still we call it law.
