I need some help.

[J.L. Pen]

In my English class my teacher assigned us a essay to write on a topic that he provides. My topic was on Justice and Injustice. My thesis is on the effects guilt has on a person in the form of punishment. So far these are the works i have used to prove my point.

Crime and Punishment
Julius Caesar
Young Goodman Brown(think of replacing with Tell Tale Heart though)
Rime of the Ancient Marnier

Right now i need a second poem that goes along with my thesis. Any help is welcomed.

[J.L. Pen]

Any help is welcome. I'm having a terrible case of writer's block.

[Wilde woman]

This is a tough one. You may want to look into poems that are dramatic monologues, narrated by someone who has committed a crime and speaks of it afterwards. I think guilt is harder to see in these kinds of poems because often the narrator tries to justify his actions, but if you can do it kudos to you. I can't really think of dramatic monologues were guilt eats away at the narrator, but I can name a couple where the narrator feels a distinct lack of guilt: Robert Browning's dramatic monologues - namely "My Last Duchess" (where the narrator has had his wife killed out of jealousy), "Porphyria's Lover" (where the narrator has strangled his lover with her own hair), and "Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister" (where the narrator, a priest, plots to murder a fellow priest).

Like I said, none of these people feel guilty, but their lack of guilt makes their actions all the more chilling. Maybe you could eke something out of that.

You might also want to check out Oscar Wilde's long poem "The Ballad of Reading Gaol." Reading Gaol is the name of the prison he was in when he wrote the poem. Wilde was jailed for carrying on homosexual relations with a lord's son. Again, he doesn't really feel guilty, and the poem is more condemning the prison system, than about anyone's actual guilt. But you might be able to find something.

If you need another novel, Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray would fit the bill perfectly.

Sorry I wasn't more help. But good luck!

[V.Jayalakshmi]

Dear Member,
Poems are difficult as I was unable to locate anything after browsing for you.But as the previous member siggested I do feel you can use the monologues found in Shakespeare's dramas.Use the speeches by Lady Macbeth in "Macbeth".You might also use that famous speech by Marc Antony in "Julious Ceaser".A mass is prodded to feel guilty you know there.
I do wish you luck.