THE HANGMAN By Maurice Ogden
Into our town the hangman came, smelling of gold and blood and flame.
He paced our bricks with a different air, and built his frame on the courthouse square.
The scaffold stood by the courthouse side, only as wide as the door was wide with a frame as tall, or a little
more, than the capping sill of the courthouse door.
And we wondered whenever we had the time, Who the criminal? What the crime? The hangman judged with
the yellow twist of knotted hemp in his busy fist.
And innocent though we were with dread, we passed those eyes of buckshot lead. Till one cried, "Hangman,
who is he, for whom you raised the gallows-tree?"
Then a twinkle grew in his buckshot eye and he gave a riddle instead of reply.
“He who serves me best," said he "Shall earn the rope on the gallows-tree."
And he stepped down and laid his hand on a man who came from another land.
And we breathed again, for another’s grief at the hangman’s hand, was our relief.
And the gallows frame on the courthouse lawn by tomorrow's sun would be struck and gone. So we gave him
way and no one spoke out of respect for his hangman’s cloak.
The next day's sun looked mildly down on roof and street in our quiet town;
and stark and black in the morning air the gallows-tree on the courthouse square.
And the hangman stood at his usual stand with the yellow hemp in his busy hand.
With his buckshot eye and his jaw like a pike, and his air so knowing and business-like.
And we cried, "Hangman, have you not done, yesterday with the alien one?"
Then we fell silent and stood amazed. "Oh, not for him was the gallows raised."
He laughed a laugh as he looked at us, "Do you think I've gone to all this fuss,
To hang one man? That's the thing I do. To stretch the rope when the rope is new."
Above our silence a voice cried "Shame!" and into our midst the hangman came; to that mans place, "Do you
hold," said he, "With him that was meat for the gallows-tree?"
He laid his hand on that one's arm and we shrank back in quick alarm.
We gave him way, and no one spoke, out of fear of the hangman’s cloak.
That night we saw with dread surprise the hangman’s scaffold had grown in size.
Fed by the blood beneath the chute, the gallows-tree had taken root.
Now as wide, or a little more than the steps that led to the courthouse door.
As tall as the writing, or nearly as tall, half way up on the courthouse wall.
The third he took, we had all heard tell, was a usurer..., an infidel.
And "What" said the hangman, "Have you to do with the gallows-bound..., and he a Jew?"
And we cried out, "Is this one he who has served you well and faithfully?"
The hangman smiled, "It's a clever scheme to try the strength of the gallows beam."
The fourth man's dark accusing song had scratched our comfort hard and long.
"And what concern," he gave us back, "Have you ... for the doomed and black?"
The fifth, the sixth, and we cried again, "Hangman, hangman, is this the man?"
"It's a trick", said he, "that we hangman know for easing the trap when the trap springs slow."
And so we ceased and asked now more as the hangman tallied his bloody score.
And sun by sun, and night by night the gallows grew to monstrous height.
The wings of the scaffold opened wide until they covered the square from side to side. And the monster cross
beam looking down, cast its shadow across the town.
Then through the town the hangman came and called through the empty streets...my name.
I looked at the gallows soaring tall and thought ... there's no one left at all
For hanging, and so he called to me to help take down the gallows-tree.
And I went out with right good hope to the hangman’s tree and the hangman’s rope.
He smiled at me as I came down to the courthouse square...through the silent town. Supple and stretched in
his busy hand, was the yellow twist of hempen strand.
He whistled his tune as he tried the trap and it sprang down with a ready snap.
Then with a smile of awful command, He laid his hand upon my hand.
"You tricked me Hangman." I shouted then, "That your scaffold was built for other men, and I'm no henchman
of yours." I cried. "You lied to me Hangman, foully lied."
Then a twinkle grew in his buckshot eye, "Lied to you...tricked you?" He said "Not I... for I answered straight
and told you true. The scaffold was raised for none but you."
"For who has served more faithfully? With your coward's hope." said He,
"And where are the others that might have stood side by your side, in the common good?"
"Dead!" I answered, and amiably "Murdered," the Hangman corrected me.
"First the alien ... then the Jew. I did no more than you let me do."
Beneath the beam that blocked the sky none before stood so alone as I.
The Hangman then strapped me...with no voice there to cry "Stay!" ... for me in the empty square.
THE BOTTOM LINE: "...I did no more than you let me do
The Greenies By William Goodykoontz
John Doe, Jr., is not born with prejudice against people who have green hair. But from the time he
is a small child, he is warned against them. He is not supposed to play with green-haired children.
He is told not to talk with them. His parents say, "Stay with your own kind. You'll be bad, John, if
you mix with green-haired children.”
As John grew older, he learns that his parents, their friends, and neighbors do not want people with green
hair to: attend his church, live in his neighborhood, go to his school, or playground, or camp.
John believes what the adults around him say. And they say that green-haired people should go to church
elsewhere, and go to other schools. As a child, John does not see many people with green hair.
At home, John often listens to his father talk. John Doe, Sr., started out in life with high hopes. But
somewhere along the way, John Doe, Sr., did not get the job he wanted or the raise he hoped for. He
began to believe that a certain group of people were the cause of his failure and that these people are to
blame for everything that is wrong in life. Naturally, the bad ones are the Greenies - the people with green
hair!
John Doe, Sr., talks against the people with green hair everywhere he goes - in public and in private. At
home, especially, he talks about how dirty, dumb, poor, and evil the people with green hair are. Day after
day, he makes jokes about them. He says that they should be thrown out of the community or that they are
turning the country over to the enemy. And he always says that no Greenies will ever move into his
neighborhood. Complaining about the green-haired people makes John Doe, Sr., forget that he himself is
something of a failure. And when he is reminded of his failure, he can easily blame it on the green-haired
people.
John Doe, Jr., begins to believe that his father is right. And anyhow he doesn't often talk with green-haired
people to see what they're really like. Sometimes he reads about them in newspapers. But since
newspapers play up crime, he usually reads about green haired people who have gotten into trouble with
the law. Again John believes his parents are right. Green-haired people do bad things. Even the
newspapers say so.
John Doe, Jr., becomes a man. He believes the things he has learned about people with green hair. Then he
marries Jane Roe, who has learned the same prejudices against people with green hair. Later they have
children. "Don't play with children with green hair. You are bad if you do."
So John Doe, Jr., carries over his prejudices to his children. And his children, too, become infected with
the disease called prejudice.
“The Hangman” by Maurice Ogden
Stanza 1 Questions
1. What did the Hangman build?
2. Where did he build it?
3. What is hemp?
4. What did the townspeople wonder?
5. Who does the Hangman say the structure is for?
6. Who did the Hangman hang first?
7. How did the townspeople feel about this? Why?
Stanza 2 Questions
8. What did the townspeople say when they saw the hangman had not left?
9. In your own words, explain why the Hangman had not left.
10. What do you think happened to the one who spoke out against the Hangman?
11. The gallows-tree had taken root. Explain what this sentence means.
Stanza 3 Questions
12. Who was the third person the Hangman executed?
13. What do the townspeople ask the Hangman after the third execution?
14. Who was the fourth executed?
15. How do the townspeople react after the sixth execution?
16. Did the gallows grow? Explain what is meant by this.
Stanza 4 Questions
17. According to the speaker, why has the Hangman called for him?
18. Why did the Hangman really call out for the speaker?
19. What does the Hangman ask the speaker?
20. What is the point of the entire poem?
The Greenies
1. John is not supposed to play with......
2.
John's parents, their friends, and their neighbors do not want people with green hair to......
3.
As a child, John does not see many people......
4.
John's father believes that a certain group of people are to blame for......
5.
Complaining about the green-haired people make John Doe, Sr., forget that he himself......
6.
Since newspapers play up crime, John usually reads about green-haired people who have......
7.
John Doe, Jr., carries over the......
8.
What is one inference you make about the story and the poem?
9. Is it easy to stereotype people? Why?
10. What is a similarity between the poem and story? What is a difference between the poem and story?
11. What do you think causes a person to become prejudiced or to stereotype others?
12. How can you, personally, stop prejudice and stereotyping - even if only a little?
13. How would you recognize/ a prejudiced person or family?
14. How could promote change in a prejudiced person or a person who stereotypes all types of people?