Famous Gallows-Tree Poems by Famous Poets

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...FAREWELL, ye dungeons dark and strong,
 The wretch’s destinie!
M’Pherson’s time will not be long
 On yonder gallows-tree.


Chorus.—Sae rantingly, sae wantonly,
 Sae dauntingly gaed he;
He play’d a spring, and danc’d it round,
 Below the gallows-tree.


O, what is death but parting breath?
 On many a bloody plain
I’ve dared his face, and in this place
 I scorn him yet again!
 Sae rantingly, &c.


Untie these bands from off my hands,
 And bring me to my sword;
And ...Read more of this...

...(Retold in Rhyme)

They threw him in a prison cell;
He moaned upon his bed.
And when he crept from coils of hell:
"Last night you killed," they said.

"last night in drunken rage you slew
A being brave with breath;
A radiant soul, because of you
Lies dark in death."

"last night I killed," he moaned distraught,
"When I was wild with wine;
I slew, and I rem...Read more of this...

...Simon Zelotes speaking after the Crucifixion.
Fere=Mate, Companion.

Ha' we lost the goodliest fere o' all
For the priests and the gallows tree?
Aye lover he was of brawny men,
O' ships and the open sea.

When they came wi' a host to take Our Man
His smile was good to see,
"First let these go!" quo' our Goodly Fere,
"Or I'll see ye damned," says he.

Aye h...Read more of this...

...he whole night through to that hard-pressed throng:
some with the morrow his sword should kill,
some should go to the gallows-tree
for rapture of ravens. But rescue came
with dawn of day for those desperate men
when they heard the horn of Hygelac sound,
tones of his trumpet; the trusty king
had followed their trail with faithful band.



XXXIX

“THE bloody swath of Swedes and Geats
and the storm of their strife, were seen afar,
how folk against folk the fight h...Read more of this...

...My flask of wine was ruby red
And swift I ran my sweet to see;
With eyes that snapped delight I said:
"How mad with love a lad can be!"
The moon was laughing overhead;
I danced as nimbly as a flea.

Thought I: In two weeks time we'll wed;
No more a lonesome widow she;
For I have bought a double bed
And I will father children three.
So singing like a lark I...Read more of this...

...A prisoner speaks:

Majority of twenty-three,
I face the Judge with joy and glee;
For am I not a lucky chap -
No more hanging, no more cap;
A "lifer," yes, but well I know
In fifteen years they'll let me go;
For I'll be pious in my prison,
Sing with gusto: Christ Is Risen;
Serve the hymn-books out on Sunday,
Sweep the chapel clean on Monday:
Such a model l...Read more of this...

...'Tis hard to hang a husky lad
When larks are in the sky;
It hurts when daffydills are glad
To wring a neck awry,
When joy o' Spring is in the sap
And cheery in the sun,
'Tis sad to string aloft a chap,
No matter what he done.

And sittin' in the pub o' night
I hears that prison bell,
And wonders if it's reely right
To haste a man to hell,

For doin' what h...Read more of this...

...son has taken a horse, and a raw rough dun was he,
With the mouth of a bell and the heart of Hell
 and the head of the gallows-tree.
The Colonel's son to the Fort has won, they bid him stay to eat --
Who rides at the tail of a Border thief, he sits not long at his meat.
He's up and away from Fort Bukloh as fast as he can fly,
Till he was aware of his father's mare in the gut of the Tongue of Jagai,
Till he was aware of his father's mare with Kamal upon her back,
And when he ...Read more of this...

...Now Fireman Flynn met Hank the Finn where lights of Lust-land glow;
"Let's leave," says he, "the lousy sea, and give the land a show.
I'm fed up to the molar mark with wallopin' the brine;
I feel the bloody barnacles a-carkin' on me spine.
Let's hit the hard-boiled North a crack, where creeks are paved with gold."
"You count me in," says Hank the Finn. "Ay...Read more of this...

...he
Had such a debt to pay.


For oak and elm have pleasant leaves
That in the springtime shoot:
But grim to see is the gallows-tree,
With its adder-bitten root,
And, green or dry, a man must die
Before it bears its fruit!

The loftiest place is that seat of grace
For which all worldlings try:
But who would stand in hempen band
Upon a scaffold high,
And through a murderer's collar take
His last look at the sky?

It is sweet to dance to violins
When Love and Life are fair:
To ...Read more of this...

...what he spent his substance on 
Blindly and uselessly!... 
"He might," they'll say, 
"Have built, some way, 
A cheaper gallows-tree!"...Read more of this...

...fruit between sea and sun, 
A black thing writhed at a yard-arm. 

Slowly then, and awesomely, 
The ship sank, and the gallows-tree, 
And there was nought between sea and sun -- 
Nought but the sun and the sky and the sea. 

But down by the marsh where the fever breeds, 
Only the water chuckles and pleads; 
For the hemp clings fast to a dead man's throat, 
And blind Fate gathers back her seeds....Read more of this...

...A wild and woeful race he ran
Of lust and sin by land and sea;
Until, abhorred of God and man,
They swung him from the gallows-tree.
And then he climbed the Starry Stair,
And dumb and naked and alone,
With head unbowed and brazen glare,
He stood before the Judgment Throne.

The Keeper of the Records spoke:
"This man, O Lord, has mocked Thy Name.
The weak have wept beneath his yoke,
The strong have fled before his flame.
The blood of babes is on his sword;
His life is evil to...Read more of this...

...I'm part of people I have known
 And they are part of me;
The seeds of thought that I have sown
 In other minds I see.
There's something of me in the throne
 And in the gallows tree.

There's something of me in each one
 With whom I work and play,
For islanded there can be none
 In this dynamic day;
And meshed with me perchance may be
 A leper in Cathay.

...Read more of this...

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