Green Eggs And Copyright Infringement

I love introducing people to great poetry--that's my goal here on Poetry Fridays. A couple of weeks ago I posted an excerpt from a Dr. Seuss poem--a popular one that is normally read at graduation ceremonies. And then I got an email full of words like 'allegedly', 'liability', 'legal counsel', 'copyright infringement', and my favorite 'counter notification pursuant to sections 512(g)(2) and (3)'. I sure hope that all that means is "TAKE IT DOWN!", because that's what I did. It's gone, Dr. S, I promise. So now I'm sticking only to posting poems that are in the public domain. A life of crime is just not for me.

So please enjoy this poem by Edgar Lee Masters that was published BEFORE 1923, thank you very much!

The Circuit Judge by Edgar Lee Masters

Take note, passers-by, of the sharp erosions
Eaten in my head-stone by the wind and rain —
Almost as if an intangible Nemesis or hatred
Were marking scores against me,
But to destroy, and not preserve, my memory.
I in life was the Circuit Judge, a maker of notches,
Deciding cases on the points the lawyers scored,
Not on the right of the matter.
O wind and rain, leave my head-stone alone!
For worse than the anger of the wronged,
The curses of the poor,
Was to lie speechless, yet with vision clear,
Seeing that even Hod Putt, the murderer,
Hanged by my sentence,
Was innocent in soul compared with me.