Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906)
The Lawyers' Ways
1I've been list'nin' to them lawyers
2 In the court house up the street,
3An' I've come to the conclusion
4 That I'm most completely beat.
5Fust one feller riz to argy,
6 An' he boldly waded in
7As he dressed the tremblin' pris'ner
8 In a coat o' deep-dyed sin.
9Why, he painted him all over
10 In a hue o' blackest crime,
11An' he smeared his reputation
12 With the thickest kind o' grime,
13Tell I found myself a-wond'rin',
14 In a misty way and dim,
15How the Lord had come to fashion
16 Sich an awful man as him.
17Then the other lawyer started,
18 An' with brimmin', tearful eyes,
19Said his client was a martyr
20 That was brought to sacrifice.
21An' he give to that same pris'ner
22 Every blessed human grace,
23Tell I saw the light o' virtue
24 Fairly shinin' from his face.
25Then I own 'at I was puzzled
26 How sich things could rightly be;
27An' this aggervatin' question
28 Seems to keep a-puzzlin' me.
29So, will some one please inform me,
30 An' this mystery unroll--
31How an angel an' a devil
32 Can persess the self-same soul?
Notes
5] First one fellow rose to argue.
13] Tell: till.
27] aggervatin': aggravating.
32] persess: possess.
Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text: The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar (New York: Dodd, Mead, and Co., 1913), Facsimile in The Collected Poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar, ed. Joanne M. Braxton (Charlottesville and London: University Press of Virginia, 1993), p. 22. PS 1556 AI 1993 Robarts Library.
First publication date:
1896
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: RPO 1998.
Recent editing: 4:2002/4/3
Rhyme: abcbdefe
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