Silas Dement + 

It was moonlight, and the earth sparkled + 

With new-fallen frost. + 

It was midnight and not a soul abroad. + 

Out of the chimney of the courthouse + 

A gray-hound of smoke leapt and chased + 

The northwest wind. + 

I carried a ladder to the landing of the stairs + 

And leaned it against the frame of the trap-door + 

In the ceiling of the portico, + 

And I crawled under the roof and amid the rafters + 

And flung among the seasoned timbers + 

A lighted handful of oil-soaked waste. + 

Then I came down and slunk away. + 

In a little while the fire-bell rang⁠— + 

Clang! Clang! Clang! + 

And the Spoon River ladder company + 

Came with a dozen buckets and began to pour water + 

On the glorious bon-fire, growing hotter + 

Higher and brighter, till the walls fell in, + 

And the limestone columns where Lincoln stood + 

Crashed like trees when the woodman fells them⁠ ⁠… + 

When I came back from Joliet + 

There was a new court house with a dome. + 

For I was punished like all who destroy + 

The past for the sake of the future. + 