Barry Holden confesses to killing his wife. He has just spent two weeks watching the trial of Dr. Duval, accused of murdering Zora Clemens because she was pregnant and a child would have ruined him. Holden listens to the case while carrying his own desperation: eight children, another on the way, and a farm mortgaged to Thomas Rhodes. When he comes home that night, he sees a hatchet lying by the steps where his sons had been digging for worms. Inside, his pregnant wife starts talking about the mortgaged farm, and he kills her. Holden’s voice is disturbingly flat, as if the violence follows a cold logic. The poem creates a grim, claustrophobic mood, where poverty and shame make the courtroom story spill into the kitchen.
Barry Holden — Summary
The very fall my sister Nancy Knapp Set fire to the house They were trying Dr. Duval For the murder of Zora Clemens, And I sat in the court two weeks Listening to every witness. It was clear he had got her in a family way; And to let the child be born Would not do. Well, how about me with eight children, And one coming, and the farm Mortgaged to Thomas Rhodes? And when I got home that night, (After listening to the story of the buggy ride, And the finding of Zora in the ditch,) The first thing I saw, right there by the steps, Where the boys had hacked for angle worms, Was the hatchet! And just as I entered there was my wife, Standing before me, big with child. She started the talk of the mortgaged farm, And I killed her.