"The Hangman" is a poem written by
Maurice Ogden in 1951 and first published in 1954 under the title "Ballad of the Hangman" in ''
Masses and Mainstream
''Masses & Mainstream'', published from 1948 to 1963, was an American Marxist monthly publication. It resulted from a merger between ''New Masses'', which ceased publication in January 1948, and ''Mainstream'', a Communist cultural quarterly estab ...
'' magazine under the pseudonym "Jack Denoya".
Its plot concerns a
hangman who arrives in a town and executes the citizens one by one. As each citizen is executed, the others are afraid to object out of fear that they will be next. Finally, there is nobody remaining in the town except the hangman and the narrator of the poem. The narrator is then executed by the hangman, as by then there is no one left who will defend him.
The poem contains four-line
stanza
In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian language, Italian ''stanza'' , "room") is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or Indentation (typesetting), indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme scheme, rhyme and ...
s with the
rhyming pattern
A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes at the end of each line of a poem or song. It is usually referred to by using letters to indicate which lines rhyme; lines designated with the same letter all rhyme with each other.
An example of the ABAB rh ...
AABB.
The poem is usually cited as an indictment of those who stand idly by while others commit grave evil or injustice, such as during
the Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
. The story it tells is very similar to that of the famous statement
First they came... that has been attributed to the anti-Nazi pastor
Martin Niemöller
Friedrich Gustav Emil Martin Niemöller (; 14 January 18926 March 1984) was a German theologian and Lutheran pastor. He is best known for his opposition to the Nazi regime during the late 1930s and for his widely quoted 1946 poem " First they ca ...
as early as 1946. The poem may be interpreted as an attack on
McCarthyism
McCarthyism is the practice of making false or unfounded accusations of subversion and treason, especially when related to anarchism, communism and socialism, and especially when done in a public and attention-grabbing manner.
The term origin ...
.
Animated film
In 1964, an animated 11-minute film was made by
Les Goldman and
Paul Julian.
Herschel Bernardi
Herschel Bernardi (October 30, 1923 – May 9, 1986) was an American actor and singer. He is best known for his supporting role in the drama television series ''Peter Gunn'' (1958–1961) and his leading role in the comedy television serie ...
narrated. The film was a co-winner of the Silver Sail award at the
Locarno International Film Festival
The Locarno Film Festival is an annual film festival, held every August in Locarno, Switzerland. Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narrative, documentary, sh ...
in 1964.
See also
* "
Not My Business
"Not My Business" is a free-verse poem by Niyi Osundare. It is included in Cluster 2, Poems from Different Cultures, of the ''AQA Anthology
The Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (the AQA) has produced Anthologies for GCSE English and Engli ...
"
References
External links
*
online archive copies of the 1964 animated film of the poem
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hangman
Poems about the Holocaust
Works about McCarthyism
1951 poems
Tragedy of the commons
Poems adapted into films