Alfred University English Professor Juliana Gray turns her sights on Lizzie 波登 in 西支行 magazine essay
Alfred University Professor of English Juliana Gray’s interest in true crime literature began when she was in her teens.
Gray grew up reciting the rhyme about Lizzie 波登, 福尔河, MA, woman charged with murdering her father 和继母 with an axe in 1892.
Lizzie 波登 took an axe
And gave her mother forty whacks,
When she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one.
And the story of Lizzie 波登 stayed with her, in part because of the compelling rhyme of the poem. But 波登’s alleged guilt also became problematic as Gray read more about the murders. “I just assumed she was guilty, but in my 30’s I realized she had been acquitted. Now that I’ve read more about the case, I’m inclined to think she was innocent of the charge.”
的 prestigious literary magazine 西支行 has now published an essay by Gray on 波登, “Lizzie 波登 and the Forty Whacks: Notes on a Rhyme,” in which Gray pokes and prods at the ambiguous circumstances surrounding the murder of 波登’s father, 安德鲁·波登, 和继母, 艾玛·波登.
As a writer of her own precisely metered lines, Gray notes the linguistic power of the Lizzie 波登 poem’s short lines: the rhyming of “whacks” and “axe,” which Gray characterizes as “the voiceless velar fricative of /k/ combined with the voiceless alveolar fricative of /s/.” 的 linguistic qualities of the poem create, she observes, “a violent, chopping sound.”
的 essay also explores the mysteries surrounding the case – 波登 was acquitted of the murders in court, and to this day there has not been a definitive conclusion to the investigation – emphasizing its inept forensics and prosecution. 的 case endures as a mystery, Gray says. “It’s fascinating because it will never be solved. It’s like Jack the Ripper. Both cases will remain mysteries unless someone someday finds a diary in an attic.”
的 西支行 essay follows 波登 through the periods before and after the murders, and though her eventual trial in which the jury and prosecution were flummoxed by the possibility of a genteel, upper-class woman murdering her father and his wife with an axe. 波登, 灰色的回忆, continued to live with the alleged guilt for the rest of her life, after she and her sister moved to a large home in Fall River, where she was ostracized by the community and taunted by children reciting the now-famous rhyming lines.
从这个意义上说,格雷说, “she was a victim of a crime for the rest of her life, even though she probably didn’t do it.”
Gray’s essay on Lizzie 波登 joins other essays she has written based on her interest in true crime and serial murders. Her poetry has been published in numerous literary magazines, as well as in collections; she has published narrative essays, and additional work in journals such as 主编的.
And she teaches creative writing in Alfred University’s Division of English. “I’m not interested in hit men or mob hits,” she says. “Those are business transactions. 的re has to be a good story, and if there’s no personal motivation, there’s no story.”
For more on Gray, visit her website: http://www.julianagray.net/