Silent before the jury, <br />Returning no word to the judge when he asked me <br />If I had aught to say against the sentence, <br />Only shaking my head. <br />What could I say to people who thought <br />That a woman of thirty-five was at fault <br />When her lover of nineteen killed her husband? <br />Even though she had said to him over and over, <br />"Go away, Elmer, go far away, <br />I have maddened your brain with the gift of my body: <br />You will do some terrible thing." <br />And just as I feared, he killed my husband; <br />With which I had nothing to do, before God! <br />Silent for thirty years in prison! <br />And the iron gates of Joliet <br />Swung as the gray and silent trusties <br />Carried me out in a coffin.<br /><br />Edgar Lee Masters<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/mrs-merritt/
