One of the strangest poems in American literature is “My Case.” It’s a poem but also a legal brief. It’s by Charles Guiteau, who assassinated President Garfield in 1881. It begins:
Today, before my God
I stand,
A patriot and a Christian man;
Condemned, by men to die;
For Obeying,
God’s Command.
As a legal brief, “My Case” failed. Guiteau was executed.
I don’t think “My Case” is successful as a poem either. But saying that a poem failed requires one to say what bit of work the poem should have done. Saying what a poem is — or saying what work it does — is a notoriously difficult task.
Still, if I were ever asked to teach a course on poetry, I think I’d start here. I’d begin with a failed poem, a poem that didn’t work — in my judgment.
To me, this poem has a defect: It’s not convincing. That, at least, is a place to start an inquiry about what sort of things a poem must try to do.
I never heard “My Case” discussed as a work of literature or of jurisprudence. As a historical footnote, I wish it were better known. Although Guiteau was mentally ill, he was able to buy a gun, a Webley .442 revolver. Although Guiteau was mentally ill, the courts found that justice would be served by executing him.
The alert historian might detect some recurring themes.
• “Charles Guiteau’s reasons for assassinating President Garfield, 1882” is available at the Gilder Lehrman Institute for American History:
A transcription of the poem is here:
https://www.gilderlehrman.org/sites/default/files/inline-pdfs/t-06319.pdf
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