Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
William Dunbar (1460–1530?) Tydingis fra the Sessioun
Edmund Spenser (c. 1552–1599) from Book 5, Canto 9, The Faerie Queene
Sir Walter Raleigh (c. 1554–1618) The Passionate Man’s Pilgrimage
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) Sonnet 35
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) Sonnet 49
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) Sonnet 134
Sir John Davies (1569–1626) Into the Middle Temple of My Heart
Ben Jonson (1572–1637) An Epigram to the Counsellor
John Donne (1572–1631) Satire 2
John Donne (1572–1631) Satire 5
Bartholomew Griffin (c. 1570–1602) Arraigned, Poor Captive
Robert Herrick (1591–1674) Upon Case
Edward Taylor (c. 1642–1729) Meditation 38: An Advocate with the Father
Daniel Defoe (c. 1660–1731) from “A Hymn to the Pillory”
Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) The Answer to “Paulus”
Alexander Pope (1688–1744) Verbatim from Boileau
Sir William Blackstone (1723–1780) The Lawyer’s Farewell to His Muse
William Cowper (1731–1800) The Cause Won
Robert Fergusson (1750–1774) The Rising of the Session
George Crabbe (1754–1832) from “Professions—Law”
Robert Burns (1759–1796) Extempore in the Court of Session
William Wordsworth (1770–1850) from Sonnets upon the Punishment of Death
William Wordworth (1770–1850) from Sonnets upon the Punishment of Death
William Wordsworth (1770–1850) from Sonnets upon the Punishment of Death
William Wordsworth (1770–1850) from Sonnets upon the Punishment of Death
George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788–1824) from Canto 10, Don Juan
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) To the Lord Chancellor
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) Hamatreya
John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892) The Gallows
Robert Browning (1812–1889) from Book 5, The Ring and the Book
Walt Whitman (1819–1892) Thought
Walt Whitman (1819–1892) You Felons on Trial in Courts
Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) I Read My Sentence Steadily
Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) I Had Some Things That I Called Mine
Lewis Carroll (1832–1898) The Barrister’s Dream
Th omas Hardy (1840–1928) The Mock Wife
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) from The Ballad of Reading Gaol
A. E. Housman (1859–1936) Oh Who Is That Young Sinner
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) The Reeds of Runnymede
Edgar Lee Masters (1868–1950) “Butch” Weldy
Edgar Lee Masters (1868–1950) Judge Selah Lively
Edgar Lee Masters (1868–1950) State’s Attorney Fallas
Edgar Lee Masters (1868–1950) Carl Hamblin
W. H. Davies (1871–1940) The Inquest
Walter de la Mare (1873–1956) In the Dock
Carl Sandburg (1878–1967) The Lawyers Know Too Much
William Carlos Williams (1883–1963) Impromptu: The Suckers
D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930) Auto-da-Fé
Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892–1950) Justice Denied in Massachusetts
Charles Reznikoff (1894–1976) from “Early History of a Writer”
Stephen Vincent Benét (1898–1943) from John Brown’s Body
Yvor Winters (1900–1968) To Edwin V. McKenzie
Kenneth Fearing (1902–1961) The People v. The People
Langston Hughes (1902–1967) The Town of Scottsboro
William Empson (1906–1984) Legal Fiction
W. H. Auden (1907–1973) Law Like Love
J. V. Cunningham (1911–1985) The Judge Is Fury
Roy Fuller (1912–1991) The Verdict
Muriel Rukeyser (1913–1980) The Trial
Dylan Thomas (1914–1953) The Hand That Signed the Paper
John Berryman (1914–1972) Dreamsong 86
Weldon Kees (1914–1955) After the Trial
David Ignatow (1914–1997) The Law Has Reasons
John Ciardi (1916–1986) E Is for Earwig
Miriam Waddington (1917–2004) In a Corridor at Court
Robert Lowell (1917–1977) Law
Mona Van Duyn (1921–2004) The Poet Reconciles Herself to Politicians
Alan Dugan (1923–2003) Defendant
Anthony Hecht (1923–2004) Death the Judge
A. R. Ammons (1926–2001) Strip: 55
James Wright (1927–1980) At the Executed Murderer’s Grave
W. S. Merwin (1927– ) Tool
John Ashbery (1927– ) Ignorance of the Law Is No Excuse
Philip Levine (1928– ) Possession
John Hollander (1929– ) Tailor-Made
Thom Gunn (1929–2004) Legal Reform
X. J. Kennedy (1929– ) Police Court Saturday Morning
Charles Wright (1935– ) What I Am Trying to Say
Charles Simic (1938– ) At the Night Court
Stephen Dunn (1939– ) Criminal
Stephen Dunn (1939– ) Outlaw
Stephen Dunn (1939– ) History
Ted Kooser (1939– ) The Witness
Seamus Heaney (1939– ) Punishment
Seamus Heaney (1939– ) The Stone Verdict
David Solway (1941– ) Wittgenstein at Chess
Robert Hass (1941– ) The Woods in New Jersey
William Matthews (1942–1997) Negligence
Paul Durcan (1944– ) This Week the Court Is Sleeping in Loughrea
Eavan Boland (1944– ) The Hanging Judge
Thomas Lux (1946– ) Traveling Exhibit of Torture Instruments
Yusef Komunyakaa (1947– ) Light on the Subject
Lawrence Joseph (1948– ) Admissions against Interest
Rita Dove (1952– ) Twelve Chairs
Brad Leithauser (1953– ) Law Clerk, 1979
Martín Espada (1957– ) Mi Vida: Wings of Fright
Martín Espada (1957– ) The Legal Aid Lawyer Has an Epiphany
Glyn Maxwell (1962– ) The Sentence
Seth Abramson (1976– ) If You Ask Your Attorney to Be Concise
Notes on Poems and Poets
Permissions
Index