Jill McDonough gives a slight biographical account of the crime and punishment in each of her poems. “December 12, 1884: George Cooke” involved a young man who drunkenly murdered his sister’s husband. Cooke had not liked the man, James Blunt, when sober and after an argument he had promised to shoot Blunt the next time they came across each other. He killed Blunt soon after. A year after Cooke was charged with murder he was hanged. McDonough makes the point that although Cooke was executed like an animal, he died like a man in grammatical and poetic ways.
The poem is broken into two stanzas for a reason, to separate the material of each. The first stanza is a biographical account of the actual murder. McDonough writes that Cooke was indeed drunk from drinking, “all night and then all day” which led to Cooke shooting his brother-in-law. The description of Cooke murdering him and Cooke’s own response develops the idea that Cooke is like an animal, “Cooke looked a little stunned and walked around to address the torn, burnt head:/Son of a bitch: I’ve killed you, have I?” (4-6). Cooke’s first response is not sorrow or regret, but a vulgar statement of irritation. The phrase “son of a bitch” is normally a reaction to something the person saying the phrase does not like or they feel frustrated. This part of the poem is italicized because the words are Cooke’s. He did not feel sorrow for the murder, but instead irritation because after he killed Blunt he had to run from the police. Given the time period (1880s) Cooke may have been able to escape punishment, but he hid in nearby railroad cars and was discovered.
The description of Blunt’s head contributes to Cooke being animal-like, also, “the torn, burnt head” (5). The bullet had entered Blunt’s cheek, so his head was obviously affected. The description gives the impression that Blunt’s face no longer exists, all that was left was the actual head. Dehumanizing Blunt’s head animalizes Cooke. He was capable of destroying the face of a human being.
The next italicized lines are from “they” who said, “not responsible…by reason of being crazy drunk” (7-8). “Crazy drunk” is a situation in which people are unpredictable and have to be controlled or monitored. Wild animals are similar; bears will attack if threatened, angered, or hungry. McDonough follows with, “No chance” to foreshadow that Cooke is deemed responsible for Blunt’s murder.
McDonough writes of the punishment in the second stanza. The idea that Cooke is an animal continues when McDonough plays on the word “game,” “It was evident at once to all that Cook/meant to die game” and “HE DIED GAME” (10-14). Game is another term for wild animals that are hunted—deer, etc. Cooke was actually hunted after his killing; a group of men had been organized to find him. However, the term “game” is relevant to the poem for its definition at the time Cooke was alive. The Oxford English Dictionary defines “to die game” as “to meet death resolutely; to maintain one’s spirit and endurance to the last.” Read one way, “game” implies Cooke is an animal; read another way, “game” portrays Cooke dying like a man. “Reporters saw not fear,/but wonderful courage” enforces the latter definition (11-12). Cooke kept his composure for his death because, though he had acted animalistic, he was determined to die like a man.
McDonough writes the poem as a sonnet with a nearly perfect rhyme scheme to show deliberate control. McDonough’s control of the poem’s length and rhyme is a commentary that people are able to control themselves (usually), therefore Cooke’s control in the end contributes to his human side. Sonnets follow a specific form: fourteen lines, ababcdcdefefgg rhyme scheme, always ending with a rhyming couplet. McDonough follows this closely, except with lines six and eight and the rhyming couplet. The words may technically rhyme, but only with effort: “defense” and “chance;” “BOOMERANG” and “GAME.” McDonough is making the point that though Cooke acted hastily, he is still human. His death was that of a man in McDonough’s opinion.
Also, there is not much sentence variety in the stanzas. The sentences in the first stanza typically being with a noun or pronoun followed by a past tense verb, “He drank,” “He killed,” “one saw,” and “Cooke looked” (1-4). The lack of variation can make a text uninteresting; however, McDonough is asserting her control for the previously mentioned reasons again. The sentences in the second stanza have the same beginnings as well, “On the scaffold, …” and “The next day, …” (9,12). McDonough intentionally forms the sentence structure similar, including the start of the sentence and the length, to show even more control.
Showing how Cooke could be animalistic, then contrasting that image with the determination and control of the writing gives the reader a sense that Cooke acted rashly, similarly to an animal, but he was a human man who could, after all, control his actions and emotions. He kept his composure throughout the trial and the actual hanging.
