Lawyer
Lawyer - meaning Summary
Moment Before the Verdict
The poem sketches a tense courtroom pause as a jury returns after lengthy trials. Small sensory details—the clock ticking, bailiffs chewing tobacco—compress time into a shared silence. Sandburg then focuses on the defense lawyer poised to speak if a guilty verdict falls. His soft, measured voice carries bitter grievance and patient resolve, his bearing likened to Atlas, embodying the weight of perceived injustices and the ritual endurance of legal defense.
Read Complete AnalysesWhen the jury files in to deliver a verdict after weeks of direct and cross examinations, hot clashes of lawyers and cool decisions of the judge, there are points of high silence— twiddling of thumbs is at an end— bailiffs near cuspidors take fresh chews of tobacco and wait— and the clock has a chance for its ticking to be heard. A lawyer for the defense clears his throat and holds himself ready if the word is "Guilty" to enter motion for a new trial, speaking in a soft voice, speaking in a voice slightly colored with bitter wrongs mingled with monumental patience, speaking with mythic Atlas shoulders of many preposterous, unjust circumstances.
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