Explore "Johnnie Sayre" by Edgar Lee Masters on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Father, thou canst never know / The anguish that smote my heart / For my disobedience, the moment I felt / The remorseless wheel of the engine / Sink into the crying flesh of my leg.
As they carried me to the home of widow Morris / I could see the school-house in the valley / To which I played truant to steal rides upon the trains.
I prayed to live until I could ask your forgiveness --
And then your tears, your broken words of comfort!
From the solace of that hour I have gained infinite happiness.
Thou wert wise to chisel for me:
"Taken from the evil to come. "