{"id":17040,"date":"2012-04-13T13:08:05","date_gmt":"2012-04-13T18:08:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=17040"},"modified":"2012-04-13T13:40:01","modified_gmt":"2012-04-13T18:40:01","slug":"poetry-about-the-law-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2012\/04\/poetry-about-the-law-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Poetry About the Law"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>This month is National Poetry Month, as noted by Professor Lisa Mazzie<\/a> and Professor Bruce Boyden<\/a> in their blogs.<\/p>\n

Those of you who are interested in both poetry and law would enjoy reading Poetry of the Law: From Chaucer to the Present<\/em>, edited by David Kader and Michael Stanford.\u00a0Many poems selected for the anthology address some aspect of civil or criminal trial law. The following poem by William Cowper is about a property dispute.<\/p>\n

William Cowper (1731-1800)<\/p>\n

The Case Won<\/strong><\/p>\n

Two neighbors furiously dispute
\nA field the subject of the suit;
\nTrivial the spot–yet such the rage
\nWith which the combatants engage,
\n‘Twere hard to tell who covets most
\nThe prize, at whatsoever cost.
\nThe pleadings swell.\u00a0 Words still suffice;
\nNo single word but has its price;
\nNo term but yields some fair pretence
\nFor novel and increased expence.<\/p>\n

Defendant, thus, becomes a name
\nWhich he that bore it may disclaim,
\nSince both, in one description blended,
\nAre plaintiffs when the suit is ended.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Cowper’s poem brought to mind Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall.”\u00a0 I came to understand this poem in a new way when I took Property in law school.<\/p>\n

Robert Frost (1874-1963)<\/p>\n

Mending Wall<\/strong><\/p>\n

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
\nThat sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
\nAnd spills the upper boulders in the sun,
\nAnd makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
\nThe work of hunters is another thing:
\nI have come after them and made repair
\nWhere they have left not one stone on a stone,
\nBut they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
\nTo please the yelping dogs.\u00a0 The gaps I mean,
\nNo one has seen them made or heard them made,
\nBut at spring mending-time we find them there.
\nI let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
\nAnd on a day we meet to walk the line
\nAnd set the wall between us once again.
\nWe keep the wall between us as we go.
\nTo each the boulders that have fallen to each.
\nAnd some are loaves and some so nearly balls
\nWe have to use a spell to make them balance:
\n‘Stay where you are until our backs are turned!’
\nWe wear out fingers rough with handling them.
\nOh, just another kind of out-door game,
\nOne on a side.\u00a0 It comes to little more:
\nThere where it is we do not need the wall:
\nHe is all pine and I am apple orchard.
\nMy apple trees will never get across
\nAnd eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
\nHe only says, ‘Good fences make good neighbors’.
\nSpring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
\nIf I could put a notion in his head:
\n‘Why do they make good neighbors?\u00a0 Isn’t it
\nWhere there are cows?
\nBut here there are no cows.
\nBefore I built a wall I’d ask to know
\nWhat I was walling in or walling out,
\nAnd to whom I was like to give offence.
\nSomething there is that doesn’t love a wall,
\nThat wants its down.’\u00a0 I could say ‘Elves’ to him,
\nBut it’s not elves exactly, and I’d rather
\nHe said it for himself.\u00a0 I see him there
\nBringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
\nIn each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
\nHe moves in darkness as it seems to me–
\nNot of woods only and the shade of trees.
\nHe will not go behind his father’s saying,
\nAnd he likes having thought of it so well
\nhe says again, “Good fences make good neighbors.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This month is National Poetry Month, as noted by Professor Lisa Mazzie and Professor Bruce Boyden in their blogs. Those of you who are interested in both poetry and law would enjoy reading Poetry of the Law: From Chaucer to the Present, edited by David Kader and Michael Stanford.\u00a0Many poems selected for the anthology address […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-popular-culture-and-law","category-public","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17040\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}