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Upon the gallows hung a wretch

Emily Dickinson

1757

Upon the gallows hung a wretch,
Too sullied for the hell
To which the law entitled him.
As nature’s curtain fell
The one who bore him tottered in ,—
For this was woman’s son.
“’Twere all I had,” she stricken gasped—
Oh, what a livid boon!
Online text © 1998-2008 Poetry X. All rights reserved.
From The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
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