After a Reading of “Darkwater”

Elizabeth Curtis Holman 1879 (artford, Connecticut)



I did not think... I did not know...
    What pale excuse is this I make
In answer to my brother’s woe,
Age-long, for deep injustice sake!

Across his mute and patient soul,
   While I have gone my heedless way,
The shadows of a fate might roll
   That deepened night and darkened day.

But I have read a burning page,
  That glowed with white and soul-wrung fire,
And now no more I may engage
    My conscience with a feeble hire.

For all the wrong I did not heed,
   Chance-born in happier paths to live,
I cry unto my brother’s need
  One word of love and shame... forgive!
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Submitted by naama on July 13, 2020

Modified on March 16, 2023

31 sec read
7

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GXGX
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 568
Words 106
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4

Elizabeth Curtis Holman

Elizabeth Alden Curtis Holman (August 12, 1879 - ?) of Waterville, Maine was the plaintiff in a 1914 United States Federal Court ruling on forced institutionalization.  more…

All Elizabeth Curtis Holman poems | Elizabeth Curtis Holman Books

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    "After a Reading of “Darkwater”" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/53947/after-a-reading-of-“darkwater”>.

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