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Show A PRISON SONNET. By John Carter. This sonnet, published in The Cosmopolitan, is the last poem written by John Carter as a convict con-vict in the Minnesota penitentiary. He has since been pardoned. He was convicted of stealing a small sum of money when o"n the point of starvation: starva-tion: I dreamed the woman who is all my care Had stretched her arms to me; a weakling's weak-ling's tear Dropt to my cheek unbidden; near, so near, She seemed, I strove to touch In my despair The empress' coronal of night-hued hair. But anguish graven on her face I read, And in a sudden agony of dread I forced my lips to unaccustomed prayer. "If Thou art God, despite my unbelief, Guard her who haln not sinned against Thy word. Who hath not mocked Thee in her deepest grief; So shall my mouth revile no more, O Lord!" Sleep veiled from me the splendor of her eyes. Who knows if it be thus that Ho replies? |