Show Me the Place, 93

“Show me the place.”

Duke Senior in As You Like It (2.1)

93: Imlaystown, New Jersey; Fall, 2011

Well, Gilbert Imlay is a name

Perhaps you’ve never heard at all?

But he was almost one to blame

For Mary Wollstonecraft’s near fall.

They had been lovers—there in France,

The Revolution underway.

She bore his child—he did that dance,

And then he just plain ran away.

She later bore another child,

A girl so bright who would design

A novel that is not so mild,

A novel known as Frankenstein.

And Imlaystown—where Gilbert came

Into the world—a place I’ve been,

Oh, several times. I think his shame

Is more than that—it’s like a sin.