Poetry on the Right-to-Life Issues of Abortion, Infanticide, and Euthanasia: Commentary from Scansion of the Poems Jeff Koloze, Ph.D. Clark State Community College [e-mail] [e-mail] 937-328-3862

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Poetry on the Right-to-Life Issuesof Abortion,
Infanticide, and EuthanasiaCommentary from
Scansion of the PoemsJeff Koloze, Ph.D.Clark
State Community CollegeKolozeJ_at_clarkstate.eduJe
ffKoloze_at_juno.com937-328-3862
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Metrical feet

• iamb (iambic) - /
  (standard foot in English poetry)
• trochee (trochaic) / - (shows
  heaviness)
• anapest (anapestic) - - / (used for
  light and happy verse)
• dactyl (dactylic) / - - (used
  for serious and heavy verse)
• monosyllabic foot / (used to
  stress words or syllables)
• spondee (spondaic) / / (used for
  emphatic stress)
• pyrrhic foot - -
  (speeds the reading of the line)

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For infanticide, I could have selected

• The Cruel Mother (anonymous Scottish ballad)
• Mary Hamilton (18th century Scottish ballad
  see Symonds entry)
• Elizabeth Barrett Brownings The Runaway Slave
  at Pilgrims Point (1848)

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Madison Julius Cawein's "The Infanticide" (1909)

• -/ -/ -/ -/ -/
• She took her babe, the child of shame and sin,
• -/ -/ - - -/ -/
• And wrapped it warmly in her shawl and went
• -/ -/ -/ -/ - -/
• From house to house for work. Propriety bent
• -/ -/ - - // -/
• A look of wonder on her raised a din
• -/ -/ // -/ -/
• Of Christian outrage. None would take her in.
• /- -/ -/ -/ //
• All that she had was gone had long been spent.
• /-- -/ - - -/ -/
• Penniless and hungry by the road she leant,
• // -/ -- // -/
• No friend to go to and no one of kin.
• -/ -/ -/ -/ -/
• The babe at last began to cry for food.
• -/ -/ -/ // -/

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Madison Julius Cawein's "The Infanticide" (1909)

• -/ -/ -/ -/ -/
• -/ -/ -- -/ -/
• -/ -/ -/ -/ --/
• -/ -/ -- // -/
• -/ -/ // -/ -/
• /- -/ -/ -/ //
• /-- -/ -- -/ -/
• // -/ -- // -/
• -/ -/ -/ -/ -/
• -/ -/ -/ // -/
• -/ // -/ // -/
• -/ /- -/ -/ -/
• -/ -/ // -/ -/
• -/ -/ -/ -- -/

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For euthanasia, I could have selected

• Willis Gaylord Clarks Euthanasia (1847)
• Frances Cornford's The Watch (1923)
• Linda Pastan's Ethics (1980)
• David R. Slavitt's Titanic (1983)

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Dudley Randall's "To The Mercy Killers" (1973)

• -/ -/ -/ -/ -/
• If ever mercy move you murder me,
• // -/ -/ -/ -/
• I pray you, kindly killers, let me live.
• /- -/ -/ -/ -/
• Never conspire with death to set me free,
• -/ -/ // -/ -/
• but let me know such life as pain can give.
• /- /- /- / -/ -/
• Even though I be a clot, an aching clench,
• -/ -/ -/ -/ -/
• a stub, a stump, a butt, a scab, a knob,
• -/ -/ -/ -/ -/
• a screaming pain, a putrefying stench,
• // -/ -/ -/ -/
• still let me live, so long as life shall throb.
• /- /- // /- --/
• Even though I turn such traitor to myself
• -/ -/ // -/ -/

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Dudley Randall's "To The Mercy Killers" (1973)

• -/ -/ -/ -/ -/
• // -/ -/ -/ -/
• /- -/ -/ -/ -/
• -/ -/ // -/ -/
• /- /- /- / -/ -/
• -/ -/ -/ -/ -/
• -/ -/ -/ -/ -/
• // -/ -/ -/ -/
• /- /- // /- --/
• -/ -/ // -/ -/
• /- /- // /-- //
• -/ -/ -/ -/ --
• -/ -/ -/ -/ /- /
• // // -/ /- //

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For abortion, I could have selected

• Gwendolyn Brooks the mother (1945)
• Anne Sexton's The Abortion (1962)
• Ai's Abortion (1999)

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Jan Beatty's "An Abortion Attempt by My Mother"
(1995)

• /- /- /- -/ /-
• Rolling side to side in my warm mother,
• -/ - -/ /- /- //
• the juices of life pulsing through my veined
  skin,
• // -- // -/
• wild juices of calves' tongues and loose
• /- // -/ //
• stretchy kid skin like young gray wrens.
• // /- /- - - /- //
• I drink unborn water in the Garfield back room
• --/ /- /- /
• in the dark while my mother cries.
• -/ - - //
• The prodding of wolves' teeth,
• // -/ -- /-
• eyes red and ailing, the shaking
• -/ /- // -/ --
• of orange clay and cracked slate, the loosening,

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Jan Beatty's "An Abortion Attempt by My Mother"
(1995)

• /- /- /- -/ /-
• -/ --/ /- /- //
• // -- // -/
• /- // -/ //
• // /- /- -- /- //
• --/ /- /- /
• -/ -- //
• // -/ -- /-
• -/ /- // -/ --
• -/ -- /-- /-- //
• -/ /- /-- // //
• /-- /-

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Works Cited

• Ai. "Abortion." Vice New and Selected Poems. New
  York W. W. Norton, 1999. 4.
• Beatty, Jan. "An Abortion Attempt by My Mother."
  Mad River. Pittsburgh U of Pittsburgh P, 1995.
  29.
• Brooks, Gwendolyn. "The Mother." Literature for
  Composition Essays, Fiction, Poetry, and Drama.
  5th ed. Eds. Sylvan Barnet, Morton Berman,
  William Burto, William E. Cain, and Marcia
  Stubbs. New York Longman, 2000. 430.
• Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. "The Runaway Slave
  at Pilgrim's Point." An Anthology of Interracial
  Literature Black-White Contacts in the Old World
  and the New. Ed. Werner Sollors. New York New
  York UP, 2004.
• 280-7.
• Cawein, M. J. Madison Julius. "The
  Infanticide." New Poems. London Grant Richards,
  1909. 210.
• Clark, Willis Gaylord. "Euthanasia." The Poetical
  Writings of the Late Willis Gaylord Clark. 2nd
• complete ed. New York J. S. Redfield, 1847.
  66-7.
• Cornford, Frances. "The Watch." Literature An
  Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 6th
  ed. Eds. X. J. Kennedy, and Dana Gioia. New York
  Longman, 1999. 811.
• "The Cruel Mother." Literature An Introduction
  to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 6th ed. Eds. X. J.
  Kennedy, and Dana Gioia. New York Longman, 1999.
  789-90.
• Pastan, Linda. "Ethics." Literature An
  Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 6th
  ed. Eds. X. J. Kennedy, and Dana Gioia. New York
  Longman, 1999. 1112-3.
• Randall, Dudley. "To the Mercy Killers. After
  the Killing. Chicago Third World P, 1973. 10.
• Sexton, Anne. "The Abortion." All My Pretty Ones.
  Boston Houghton Mifflin, 1962.
• Slavitt, David R. "Titanic." Literature An
  Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 6th
  ed. Eds. X. J. Kennedy, and Dana Gioia. New York
  Longman, 1999. 1132.
• Symonds, Deborah A. Weep Not for Me Women,
  Ballads, and Infanticide in Early Modern
  Scotland. University Park, PA Pennsylvania State
  UP, 1997.