"Half-Hanged Mary" is Canadian writer Margaret Atwood's tale of patriarchal cruelty and powerful transformation. This dramatic monologue's speaker is Mary Webster, a 17th-century woman hanged for witchcraft in Puritan Massachusetts. Dangling from a tree, choking but not dying, Mary has plenty of time to reflect on the sadistic sexism that got her here—and when she's found alive the next morning, she truly becomes the powerful witch she was falsely accused of being before. This poem first appeared in Atwood's 1995 collection Morning in the Burned House.
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Rumour was loose ...
... a thrown stone.
I was hanged ...
... come in handy.
The rope was ...
... onto the tree.
Trussed hands, rag ...
... me wearing it.
The bonnets come ...
... save your life.
Help me down? ...
... pointing a finger.
I understand. You ...
... need it all.
Well God, now ...
... spell out Grace?
Does my twisting ...
... of Your face.
My throat is ...
... down on despair.
Death sits on ...
... Why suffer?
A temptation, to ...
... To let go.
Out of my ...
... as mine are.
There is only ...
... the angels caw.
wind seethes in ...
... or silver disc
my lungs ...
... not give in
Sun comes up, ...
... lived a millennium.
I would like ...
... revelation of deafness.
At the end ...
... will have two.
When they came ...
... that went over.
Now I only ...
... I am one.
My body of ...
... of my way.
My first death ...
... I can say.
Holiness gleams on ...
... been dead twice?