A gamekeeper shoots animals—a weasel, a crow, a magpie—and hangs their bodies on an old oak tree. The poem lists them calmly, describing how they now swing in sun, wind, rain, and snow, “without pleasure, without pain.” That refrain returns with each new creature, like a lullaby of death. The speaker doesn’t rage or openly mourn; the voice is flat, but a quiet sadness seeps through the repetition, creating a mood of uncanny stillness. The tree becomes a place where all sins and striving are cancelled, leaving only an endless, hollow waiting. You sense a bleak irony: the keeper has turned living, troublesome beings into mute decorations, a little gallery of fur and feather. Rather than triumphant, the poem feels drained of life, as if the gallows-tree watches over a world gone numb.
The Gallows — Summary
THERE was a weasel lived in the sun With all his family, Till a keeper shot him with his gun And hung him up on a tree, Where he swings in the wind and rain, In the sun and in the snow, Without pleasure, without pain, On the dead oak tree bough.
There was a crow who was no sleeper, But a thief and a murderer Till a very late hour; and this keeper Made him one of the things that were, To hang and flap in rain and wind, In the sun and in the snow. There are no more sins to be sinned On the dead oak tree bough.
There was a magpie, too, Had a long tongue and a long tail; He could both talk and do-- But what did that avail? He, too, flaps in the wind and rain Alongside weasel and crow, Without pleasure, without pain, On the dead oak tree bough.
And many other beasts And birds, skin, bone and feather, Have been taken from their feasts And hung up there together, To swing and have endless leisure In the sun and in the snow, Without pain, without pleasure, On the dead oak tree bough.