Each poem advances the story, narrated in the past tense at a particular moment in the progress of events. Each character speaks about some aspect of the story, giving his or her perspective. Each poem is no more than a page long. Some of the poems end in a small ironic moment or revelation. In one poem, for example, Percy Gilmore describes how Sprockett confronts bandits tracking the posse:
Immediately, they drew back:
infernal creatures terrified
by God’s archangel of retribution.
But one, filled with foolish bravado,
attempted to ambush Mr. Sprockett,
Who slew the craven devil
With a clap of pistol thunder.
His brother demons drew their guns,
but in a display of dazzling marksmanship,
Mr. Sprockett dispatched each
as if their hearts were bull’s-eyes.
'I’d no quarrel with them,'
Mr. Sprockett lamented.
‘Not the boys we’re looking for,’
And wiping away tears,
he led us in a short prayer
for their troubled souls.
While the first half of the book describes the hunt for the murderers, the second half describes the developing love of Percy Gilmore and Mercy, the girl who survived the attacks but is left terribly disfigured. Her father is a minister, and he is revulsed that his daughter loves a Jew. At first he views the prospect of their marriage as little better than the attack she suffered:
My poor daughter, to suffer from merciless men,
Her only salvation almost as unbearable.
Ultimately he and his wife accept their daughter’s husband. In the collection’s final poems, 30 years after the marriage, Mercy returns to the scene of the attacks and considers the past and future direction of her life. Despite the violence, suffering, and horror that scarred her, she has also had love, and the book ends on a note of determined affirmation.
Article comments
1 - Natalie Bennett
This article has been selected for syndication to Advance.net, which is affiliated with newspapers around the United States. Nice work!