The merchant of Babylon

Publication Instance Details #3185

Publication Overview

Translation	Is Multilingual	Explicit Irish Context?	Ekphrasis	Has Paratext?	Reference to News, Media or Technology
No	No	No	No	No	No

Details

Human Rights Issues	Death Penalty/Unlawful Detention/Incarceration Torture
Languages	English
Genre	Long (narrative) Poem
Medium	Print Collection
Notes	This is the sixth section of the long narrative poem 'Firehead' - Lola Ridge's magnum opus, published in 1929. 'Firehead' is based on the story of the crucifixion, and is often understood to be, at least in part, a response to the unfair trial and conviction of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti in 1921 and their execution by electric chair in 1927. Lola Ridge attended a public protest in 1927 that took place outside of the Massachusetts Prison where the immigrants Sacco and Vanzetti were held and were to be executed. Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were Italian immigrant anarchists who were controversially accused of murdering Alessandro Berardelli and Frederick Parmenter, a guard and a paymaster, during the April 15, 1920, armed robbery of the Slater and Morrill Shoe Company in Braintree, Massachusetts, United States. The collection 'Firehead' is divided into nine parts and addresses an array of themes including violence, gender, racism, and freedom of conscience - themes that had clear contemporary resonances. 'The merchant of Babylon' forms the sixth part of the collection and is subdivided into three poems titled: 1. Before dawn, 2. The unborn , and 3. Lullaby. It focuses on Babylon (modern day Iraq) and the love story between Myrenne and Sargon. The polyvocal nature of 'Firehead' calls attention to the complex nature of witness and to the constructed and subjective nature of so-called 'authoritative accounts of witness'.