Seattle University Law Library Blog

April is Poetry Month!

The D. A. was ready His case was red-hot. 

Defendant was present His witness was not.

He prayed one day’s delay From His honor the judge. 

But his plea was not granted The Court would not budge.

So the jury was empanelled All twelve good and true

But without his main witness What could the twelve do?

Brown v State, 134 Ga.Ct.App. 771, 771-772, 216 S.E.2d 356 (1975) by Judge Evans. In the footnotes to the case, the judge explains that the decision was written in rhyme because a Senior Judge of the Superior Courts had demanded (at a party) that if the writer ever reversed another one of his decisions, the opinion be written in poetry. Judge Evans goes on to say “it was no easy task to write the opinion in rhyme”.

For legal poetry in the Seattle University Law Library, try:

• J. Greenbag Croke, Lyrics of the Law: a Recital of Songs and Verses Pertinent to the Law and the Legal Profession (W.S. Hein, 1986) 4^th floor – PR1195.L4H3 1986

• Percival E. Jackson, Justice and the Law: an Anthology of American Legal Poetry and Verse (Michie Co., 1960) 4^th Floor – PS595.L3J3

• Ina Russelle Warren, ed., The Lawyer’s Alcove: Poems by the Lawyer, for the Lawyer, and About the Lawyer (Doubleday, Page, 1900) 4^th floor – PN6110.L2W2

For a law review article written as a poem, see Gary Dubin, The Ballad of Leroy Powell, 16 UCLA L. Rev. 139 (1968).