But I do nothing upon myself, and yet I am my own executioner.
quote by John Donne
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The Execution of James Graham, Marquis of Montrose
'Twas in the year of 1650, and on the twenty-first of May,
The city of Edinburgh was put into a state of dismay
By the noise of drums and trumpets, which on the air arose,
That the great sound attracted the notice of Montrose.
Who enquired at the Captain of the guard the cause of it,
Then the officer told him, as he thought most fit,
That the Parliament dreading an attempt might be made to rescue him,
The soldiers were called out to arms, and that had made the din.
Do I, said Montrose, continue such a terror still?
Now when these good men are about my blood to spill,
But let them look to themselves, for after I am dead,
Their wicked consciences will be in continual dread.
After partaking of a hearty breakfast, he commenced his toilet,
Which, in his greatest trouble, he seldom did forget.
And while in the act of combing his hair,
He was visited by the Clerk Register, who made him stare,
When he told him he shouldn't be so particular with his head,
For in a few hours he would be dead;
But Montrose replied, While my head is my own I'll dress it at my ease,
And to-morrow, when it becomes yours, treat it as you please.
He was waited upon by the Magistrates of the city,
But, alas! for him they had no pity.
He was habited in a superb cloak, ornamented with gold and silver lace;
And before the hour of execution an immense assemblage of people were round the place.
From the prison, bareheaded, in a cart, they conveyed him along the Watergate
To the place of execution on the High Street, where about thirty thousand people did wait,
Some crying and sighing, a most pitiful sight to see,
All waiting patiently to see the executioner hang Montrose, a man of high degree.
Around the place of execution, all of them were deeply affected,
But Montrose, the noble hero, seemed not the least dejected;
And when on the scaffold he had, says his biographer Wishart,
Such a grand air and majesty, which made the people start.
As the fatal hour was approaching when he had to bid the world adieu,
He told the executioner to make haste and get quickly through,
But the executioner smiled grimly, but spoke not a word,
Then he tied the Book of Montrose's Wars round his neck with a cord.
Then he told the executioner his foes would remember him hereafter,
And he was as well pleased as if his Majesty had made him Knight of the Garter;
Then he asked to be allowed to cover his head,
But he was denied permission, yet he felt no dread.
[...] Read more
poem by William Topaz McGonagall
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0314 Executive Decision
‘Look! now briefly, mortal living head -
As severed from thy now so lifeless limbs
In brief and, who knows, truthful, godly view,
So solemn, oncely, rare - that fleshly instrument
That thou hath used, misused…
And learn this last of life’s live lessons, quick and dread
In these few seconds of a living death…’
So Dean John Donne might have wrung out
that detail, had he known it – tolled
his solemn, tortured, feargod, ringing knell
- had he but known this ‘metaphysical’ quaint fact:
that, when the executioner’s sharp axeblade
slices through your neck with such finality,
the head maintains its human faculties
for eight brief seconds after body falls;
the executioner, it’s said, with great formality, then
takes hold that still-life head by its warm hair,
and turns it round with all solemnity,
to gaze its last repentence or regret
upon its frail accomplice on life’s way;
the gathered audience awed to silent, ice-cold heart..
last freeze-frame photo of an undeveloped film.
This solemn final courtesy of soul to soul
I’ll leave to metaphysicals, to speak life whole.
poem by Michael Shepherd
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Gioconda And Si-Ya-U
to the memory of my friend SI-YA-U,
whose head was cut off in Shanghai
A CLAIM
Renowned Leonardo's
world-famous
"La Gioconda"
has disappeared.
And in the space
vacated by the fugitive
a copy has been placed.
The poet inscribing
the present treatise
knows more than a little
about the fate
of the real Gioconda.
She fell in love
with a seductive
graceful youth:
a honey-tongued
almond-eyed Chinese
named SI-YA-U.
Gioconda ran off
after her lover;
Gioconda was burned
in a Chinese city.
I, Nazim Hikmet,
authority
on this matter,
thumbing my nose at friend and foe
five times a day,
undaunted,
claim
I can prove it;
if I can't,
I'll be ruined and banished
forever from the realm of poesy.
1928
Part One
Excerpts from Gioconda's Diary
15 March 1924: Paris, Louvre Museum
At last I am bored with the Louvre Museum.
[...] Read more
poem by Nazim Hikmet
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Cruel and Unusual
Cruel and Unusual
by Ted L Glines
Is lethal injection
cruel and unusual?
Obviously painful,
therefore cruel,
but is it unusual?
No, lethal injection is
the usual death penalty
in some states.
The way that Jesus died
was cruel
but not unusual;
Romans did it all the time.
We like to view the Cross
as the choice of Jesus
to save us sinners,
but He was given no choice.
Our Cross is a Roman
symbol of life-death power;
arrogance in its darkest hour.
Even when they were pagans,
Romans had Catholic DNA
(miniscule time-warp there) .
What do we do with a man that kills
for anger or just for thrills,
how do we put his evil to rest
and avoid the cruelty test?
The man who injects the drug
or he who pulls the switch,
executioner,
is a murderer at best
paying a cost,
his soul is (maybe?) lost.
There abides a greater mandate;
(I believe it is greater)
Thou Shalt Not Kill
(murder if you like) .
How do we measure “unusual”
“cruel”
against that?
If I found a murderer, I would put him in the hands of the family of the person he had killed, and they could exact their chosen retribution on him. Yes, this is a tribal way of dealing with a murderer. Is murder a sin? I certainly would never encumber myself with the sin of murdering him, myself. Would you? Nor would I pay a public servant to be his executioner, for that would encumber me with the sin of demanding his murder (tax-paying does not let you avoid the sin) . Even an atheist must address his own self-blame for murdering... a murderer (Catch 22) .
poem by Ted L Glines
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Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. If we continue to develop our technology without wisdom or prudence, our servant may prove to be our executioner.
quote by Omar Bradley
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Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. If we continue to develop our technology without wisdom or prudence, our servant may prove to be our executioner.
quote by Omar Bradley
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Anal Narcotico
Babies asses profaned
By lustful
Psychopath' penises
Asses from which blood
And entrails' fragments
Spill out.
Inconceivable scream - tearing
Apart ears of the
Criminal
Who wants to fulfill
His sick mind,
Sick of emptiness that
Blows up his brain
Anal narcotic that allows
To unload animal lust.
Small object of orgiastic play
Choking in its yell - by sperm
Of the executioner
Who's got nothing
For his defense - except
Innocence
Raped eyes in deaf scream
Look for death that
Will release from
Pain,
Off "mother's pain",
When they came into
This world.
song performed by Yattering
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Part VII
She, face, form, bearing, one
Superb composure—
"He has told you all?
Yes, he has told you all, your silence says—
What gives him, as he thinks the mastery
Over my body and my soul!—has told
That instance, even, of their servitude
He now exacts of me? A silent blush!
That's well, though better would white ignorance
Beseem your brow, undesecrate before—
Ay, when I left you! I too learn at last
—Hideously learned as I seemed so late—
What sin may swell to. Yes,—I needed learn
That, when my prophet's rod became the snake
I fled from, it would, one day, swallow up
—Incorporate whatever serpentine
Falsehood and treason and unmanliness
Beslime earth's pavement: such the power of Hell,
And so beginning, ends no otherwise
The Adversary! I was ignorant,
Blameworthy—if you will; but blame I take
Nowise upon me as I ask myself
—You—how can you, whose soul I seemed to read
The limpid eyes through, have declined so deep
Even with him for consort? I revolve
Much memory, pry into the looks and words
Of that day's walk beneath the College wall,
And nowhere can distinguish, in what gleams
Only pure marble through my dusky past,
A dubious cranny where such poison-seed
Might harbor, nourish what should yield to-day
This dread ingredient for the cup I drink.
Do not I recognize and honor truth
In seeming?—take your truth and for return,
Give you my truth, a no less precious gift?
You loved me: I believed you. I replied
—How could I other? ' I was not my own,'
—No longer had the eyes to see, the ears
To hear, the mind to judge, since heart and soul
Now were another's. My own right in me,
For well or ill, consigned away—my face
Fronted the honest path, deflection whence
Had shamed me in the furtive backward look
At the late bargain—fit such chapman's phrase!—
As though—less hasty and more provident—
Waiting had brought advantage. Not for me
The chapman's chance! Yet while thus much was true,
I spared you—as I knew you then—one more
Concluding word which, truth no less, seemed best
[...] Read more
poem by Robert Browning from The Inn Album (1875)
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Eat and take belly, because tomorrow the assistant of the executioner will come to take the skin.
Scanian proverbs
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Im Your Pusher
Yo,its time for me to pump the volume
No problem,the records revolvin
Evils the mixer,Im the rap trixister
Paparazzi on the bum rush for pictures
Ice,coolin,yo colder than ever
Punk executioner e pull the lever
Rotate the wax tehn cut anaxe the tracks
Push up the levels till the red lights max
Dont try to size up,you better wise up
To the rap criminals,were succeeded
Dope beats and lyrics,no beepers needed
For this drug deal,Im the big wheel
The dope Im sellin,you dont smoke,you feel
Out on the dance floor,on my world tour
Im sellin dope in each and every record store
Im the king pin when the wax spins
Crack or smack will take you to a sure end
You dont need it,just throw that stuff away
You wanna get high? let the record play
Mc ice t
Im your pusher
I know youre lovin this drugs as its comin out your speaker
Bass thru the bottons,highs thru the tweeters
But this base you dont need a pipe
Just a tempo to keep your hype
Groovin like I see you doin
Some stupid crack would just ruin
Your natural high,why? ..that aint fly
And anyone who says it is,lies
Move like I knew you would,like I knew could
And if you aint cracked out,then I know you should
Be able to give me a clap,to match exact with the track
And since I know that you aint,i expect that
Oh now this jam is lit,its like the ultimate
People high off dope but still physically fit
Ill make a million bucks,pack my dough in trucks
>from sellin dope beats,dope rhymes,dope cuts
Ill be the biggest dope dealer in history
Because all the fly will be high off that ice-t
Im your pusher
Im bring it to boil,evil e rock it up
You want it? ..i dont think you got enough
Last suckers crossed,syndicate shotem up
Cops foundem in the lake bottom up
I dont play when it comes to my dope
I check my lyrics close,like with a microscope
I dont cleanem up with no ivory soap
I leaveem hard and pure,hope that you can cope
Because you might o.d. if you overdrive
This record,tape or cd,because the sound ive
[...] Read more
song performed by Ice T
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Become You
I heard you sing a rebel song
Sung it loud and all alone
We can't afford the things you save
We can't afford the warranty
Well i see you walking in the glare
Down the county road we share
Our southern blood my heresy
Damn that ol' confederacy
It took a
Long time to
Become the thing
I am to you
And you won't
Tear it apart
Without a fight
Without a heart
I'm sorry for what you've learned
(learned)
When you feel the tables turn
To run so hard in your race
(race)
Now you found who set the pace
The landed aristocracy
Exploiting all your enmity
All your daddies fought in vain
Leave you with the mark of cain
It took a
Long time to
Become the thing
I am to you
And you won't
Tear it apart
Without a fight
Without a heart
It took a
Long time to
Become you
Become you
The center holds so they say
(it never held too well for me)
It never held too well for me
(the center holds so they say)
I won't stop short for common ground
(that vilifies the trodden down)
That vilifies the trodden down
(i won't stop)
The center held the bonded slave
For the sake of industry
(ah)
The center held the bloody hand
[...] Read more
song performed by Indigo Girls
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If the dowry doesn't support her, even the executioner is disinterested.
Sicilian proverbs
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Someone with an unrelenting heart is his own executioner.
Greek proverbs
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The executioner is a keen shaver.
German proverbs
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Charity But how shall we expect charity towards others, when we are uncharitable to ourselves? Charity begins at home, is the voice of the world; yet is every man his greatest enemy, and, as it were, his own executioner.
quote by Thomas Browne
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It would perhaps be nice to be alternately the victim and the executioner.
quote by Charles Baudelaire
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Dirty Window
I see my reflection in the window
It looks different, so different than what you see
Projecting judgement on the world
This house is clean baby
This house is clean
Am I who I think I am?
Am I who I think I am?
Am I who I think I am?
Look out my window and see it's gone wrong
Court is in session and I slam my gavel down
I'm judge and I'm jury and I'm executioner too
Projector
Protector
Rejector
Infector
Projector
Rejector
Infector
Injector
Defector
Rejector
I see my reflection in the window
This window clean inside, dirty on the out
I'm looking different than me
This house is clean baby
This house is clean
Am I who I think I am?
Am I who I think I am?
Am I who I think I am?
Look out my window and see it's gone wrong
My court is in session and now I slam my gavel down
Projector
Protector
Rejector
Infector
Projector
Rejector
Infector
Injector
Defector
Rejector
Defector
I drink from the cup of denial
I' judging the world from my throne
I drink from the cup of denial
I'm judging the world from my throne
song performed by Metallica
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Prayer
In my perfect world
Theres no need to right the wronged
Laid down my burden
I know I did not carry the weight
Not sure to who responsibility belonged
I turned a blind eye
While waiting for the hand of fate to still the waters
Heal all the broken hearts
And hope it could be done without a sacrifice
And maybe I just wouldnt pay the price
Ive fought this long enough
Now I send the prayer to heaven for the chance to be
A better man than the man I see
I send the prayer to heaven, lay your hands on me
I aint a saint but to this I swear I send the prayer
And now I feel all I can do is not enough
My rome is burning and Im standing at the deep abyss
But every passion started with an act of love
And every act of love, started with a single kiss
Father, father your gift was my world of light
And Ive betrayed you with a single judas kiss
Ive been my own executioner
But its not just me anymore
Now I send the prayer to heaven for the chance to be
A better man than the man I see
I send the prayer to heaven, lay your hands on me
I aint a saint but to this I swear
Burn my wasted pride
Open your heart to this
Theres a voice thats crying somewhere
Deep inside my soul for shelter
Now I send the prayer to heaven for the chance to be
A better man than the man I see
I send the prayer to heaven, lay your hands on me
I aint a saint but to this I swear
Now I send the prayer to heaven for the chance to be
A better man than the man I see
I send the prayer to heaven, lay your hands on me
I aint a saint but to this I swear I send the prayer...
Now I send a prayer to heaven...
song performed by Rick Springfield
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And as the hour approached for the execution, in his own mind, Collins became both the executioner and the victim. He would pace up and down, transformed in almost a kind of exorcism when he knew he was responsible for taking someone's life.
quote by Liam Neeson
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If we are not our brother's keeper, at least let us not be his executioner.
quote by Marlon Brando
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