For Ruth Ellis

Publication Instance Details #3204

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	Assassination Death Penalty/Unlawful Detention/Incarceration Gender-based violence
Languages	English
Genre	Short Lyric
Medium	Print Collection
Notes	Bardwell's poem is inspired by Ruth Ellis' murder of her lover in London in 1955. Ellis was a British nightclub hostess and convicted murderer who became the last woman to be hanged in the United Kingdom following the fatal shooting of her lover, David Blakely in whose hands she had reportedly been the victim of sexual violence. Her execution played a major part in the movement to abolish the death penalty, although it took a further decade for the law to be changed. The short lyric portrays the impact of the case upon the British public: a group of children shout to reprieve the sentence against Ellis who was condemned to death. The concluding lines refer to the news, as well as to the British state, monarchy, and law responsible for condemning Ellis to death. Bardwell wrote another poem as a response to the Ruth Ellis case titled 'Sensational'.