Michael Coy Poet Iambic Pentameter

Edison's Hammer

(William Hammer, Thomas Alva Edison's assistant,
has reached the end of his tolerance.  His boss is
planning to electrocute an elephant for a publicity
stunt.)

If he goes through with this, the dam has burst.
I'm done with him. Of all the tricks he's pulled,
this is the lowest, cheapest, cruellest.  Worst.
Yes, Edison.  He can't be serious,
can he? To execute an elephant?

He's out there, grinning like a Barbary ape.
Where two or more newspapermen are gathered,
Alva loses all his self-control.
He'll be there now, perspiring, shouting, lathered,
excited to his flinty, vulgar soul.

I'm William Joseph Hammer. Who are you?
A quarter-century I've spent with him,
but now the scales have fallen from my eyes.
The man's a pirate and a charlatan.
Inventor?  Him?
                              Well, since I'm stranded here
in shabby Coney Island in the rain,
ignored and slighted, spited yet again,
I'll tell you. Edison did not invent
the light bulb - that's what he employed me for.
Besides, I'll name a dozen scientists
who'd made a working lamp some years before.

What is he good at? He's a patent-mill!
He takes out patents like a dentist, teeth
(except that dentists never put their name
on what they've pulled). The man has got no shame.
The team has all the talent, he the grin:
we think the thoughts, and Alva cashes in.

I think he's met his match in Westinghouse.
The so-called war of currents. Who will win?
America will buy one set of goods,
and where this country leads, the others go.
To get his system in American homes,
He'd kill his grandma.
                                        Hence this all-time low.
He's worse than Czolgosz.  At the very least,
the latter had nobility, although
misguided.  Alva has no other cause
beyond himself. Those motion picture-things
are here for Alva's glory. When the blow
extinguishes that poor beast's life, you'll know
whose self-promoting hand was on the tiller.
Saint Thomas Alva Edison's a killer.

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Doug Vinson March 25, 2017 at 9:41 PM Beyond interesting, Michael! Indeed - Edison was a nasty bugger. Killing the elephant was unforgivable, a petty stunt to generate public fear of Westinghouse's alternating current, versus Edison's direct current. (Although - the poor elephant was almost surely going to die one way or another, having killed three people in prior years.) Edison was also a fool to disregard and cheat the brilliant Nikola Tesla. 32 years on transformers here. Michael Coy March 26, 2017 at 12:43 AM Wow. You really know the subject. I owe you another big thank you!

Darren White March 22, 2017 at 2:11 AM So, Edison did all that? Was Hammer indeed the better scientist, or is it a matter of rivalry? Love the pentameter. My personal favourite in writing is Iambic Pentameter Blank Verse :) Michael Coy March 22, 2017 at 2:43 AM Yes, Edison was a charlatan. And thank you!