A CONVICT POET.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 59, 18 June 1910, Page 12

A CONVICT POET.

"John Darter," an English poet, who has been imprisoned at St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S.A., was released recently on his twenty-fourth birthday, five yearsi before the expiration of his ten-year sentence for the theft of £5 at a railway station when he was starving. "The prison officials," he. said to an interviewer, "do not know my real name. I am 'John Carter' on the records." The sentence on the prisoner was commuted as the result of the effort of the editors of the Century Magazine and other influential publications to which he contributed a series of remarkable poems. His "Ballade of Misery and Iron," "Luxe Tenebris," and "Cor. Sordini" showed an exceptional talent. Here, for instance, is a portion of the "Ballade of Misery and Iron": Haggard faces and trembling knees, Eves that shine with a weakling's hate, Lips that mutter their blasphemies, Murderous hearts that darkly wait— These were they who were men of late, Fit to hold a plough or a sword. i If a prayer this wall will penetrate— Have pity on these my comrades, Lord. Mr. ißobert Underwood Johnson, the editor of the Century Magazine, said in an interview: "I took steps to obtain his pardon in the interests of literature, and because I feel that here is a man well worth saving. I should be proud if I could write as well as he."