OK, so the manic urge has taken me over, and I have a question (those who
dislike extreme bad taste can skip this one):
Among other things, McVeigh's statement is a form of publication. The poem
is in the public domain. Suppose, instead, he had chosen something more
recent, say, "In Memory of My Feelings." Would that be fair use under
copyright law? Would news outlets have to pay royalties to O'Hara's estate
to reprint it? Or would McVeigh's appropriation have changed its legal status?
There are poetry programs in the prisons. Should we also be promoting arts
activism among death row inmates? Henley's poem, after all, is now being
read by even more people than had to suffer through it in High School.
Written through tears.
Mark
At 09:17 AM 6/11/2001 -0400, you wrote:
>Timothy McVeigh was executed this morning by the United States government,
>the first federal prisoner to be executed since 1963. His final statement
>was William Ernest Henley's poem "Invictus," published in 1875. Henley was
>26 when his poem was published. McVeigh died this morning age 33.
>
>
>INVICTUS
>
>
>OUT of the night that covers me,
>Black as the pit from pole to pole,
>I thank whatever gods may be
>For my unconquerable soul.
>
>In the fell clutch of circumstance
>I have not winced nor cried aloud.
>Under the bludgeonings of chance
>My head is bloody, but unbow'd.
>
>Beyond this place of wrath and tears
>Looms but the Horror of the shade,
>And yet the menace of the years
>Finds and shall find me unafraid.
>
>It matters not how strait the gate,
>How charged with punishments the scroll,
>I am the master of my fate:
>I am the captain of my soul.
>
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