Anecdote of Hemlock for Two Athenians by Carl Sandburg
I borrowed Carl Sandburg’s Honey and Salt from my mother’s bookcase. Here’s a selection.
Anecdote of Hemlock for Two Athenians
By Carl Sandburg
The grizzled Athenian ordered to hemlock,
Ordered to a drink and lights out,
Had a friend he never refused anything.
“Let me drink too,” the friend said.
And the grizzled Athenian answered,
“I never yet refused you anything.”
“I am short of hemlock enough for two,”
The head executioner interjected,
“There must be more silver for more hemlock.”
“Somebody pay this man for the drinks of death,”
The grizzled Athenian told his friends,
Who fished out the ready cash wanted.
“Since one cannot die on free cost at Athens,
Give this man his money,” were the words
OF the man named Phocion, the grizzled Athenian.
Yes, there are men who know how to die in a grand way.
There are men who make their finish worth mentioning.
