Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1916-06-14
"A PRISON-POENi,
(Literary Digest.)

PauIs Epistles-not enough to war
rant sentencing authors to Jail to i'm
prove their output, perhaps, but sutR-
cient to show some relationship be-
tween the pen and the penitentiary
The latest proof Is a poem by one Of
Warden Osborne's guests at Sing
Sing. reprinted by the Buffalo News,
with the following comment:
Some Of the worlds greatest po-
ems have been of the humblest par
entage.
There are In poverty, in distress,
in great penance, and in sorrow quail
tiles that play upon the strings of the
imagination. The melody is plaint-
i've, Joyous, or melancholy, as the
case may be; but, whatever it is, it
Is complete and well rounded.
There is no half measure in the
song born of adversely.
so it happens that in the current
Star of Hope the official paper of
Sing Sing prison, NO. 65,368' writes
one of the best and most forceful
poems OF the war.
The laws Of society do not even
permit the writer to sign his name.
Our townsman, superintendent of
Prisons James M. Carter, says he has
no knowledge Of the individual, yet
with a rare force he has thrown the
poetic javelin at the monster Of mod
ern warfare"
The poem in full resembles in me-
ter Oscar Wilde's BALLAD of Read
ing Gaol,' without, however, reflect
ing any phase Of prison life. There
is surprising amount Of color in it's
lines, when one considers that it was
moved from that OF the sea. 1t runs
through ten short stanzas:
The Captain Of the Pit.
Down in the deep, the utter deep,
where white Sea-serpents hide,
There dropt a wrecks great tangled
heap that never more could ride
The oceans waves; for it was fang'd
both fore and aft inside.
The Shark and Strake, a conference
called to view this fearsome sight;
They took the Pilot-fsh to ring the
bells with all his might;
TO summon vipers from the Pit-the
Pit, below the light.
So DER the sands of Oceans floor,
there crawled great, Shiny things,
That never human eye hath seen with
all it's fathomings;
the Pilot-fish, he sings:
"Hear ye! Hear ye! All fish that
swim and We that dwell within
The Pit, our brother Shark has asked
who did this grievous sin;
Who came from out the slime below
to hurl their fangs at men?"
The blind white Serpents snaked
around to feel within the rip,
And shook their heads so adder-wise,
the Shark coiled back his lip;
For none Of all the Serpents knew
whose fang had struck the ship.
The Squid dipt in his pot Of ink to
write a curt denial;
He wrote about the spawn Of men
who'd died without smile;
The tiny human babes who lay within
the chambered pile.
The Shark had just begun to weep,
when shadows crept o'erhead,
And down there came a Submarine to
nestle midst the dead:
A snaky thing so fearsome built; it's
fang was dripping red.
The Cuttlefsh, the Adder-snake, the
blind Sea-serpents white,
Tho Squirting-squi the Killer
whale. they all recoiled in fright,
For deep within the Submarine they
heard a voice recite:
Il am the thing Ya-Ya--Ya-Ya! the
captain Of the Pit;
Tho Sinking, sneaking Submarine,
whose picric fang has slit
At two-mile range this fast mail
boat; so drink to me: Prosit!"
The tiny little Pilot-fish, he made
crown Of green,
10 place it on the periscope to cap his
snakaship lean;
And king of all the viper tribe they