Bastard



The very skies wee black with shame,
As near my moment drew;
The very hour before you cam
I felt I hated you.

But now I see how fair you are,
How divine your eyes,
It seems I step upon a star
To leap to Paradise.

What care I who your father was:
('Twas better no to know);

You're mine and mine alone because
I love and love you so.

What though you only bear my name,
I hold my head on high;
For none shall have a right to claim
A right to you but I.

Because I've borne a human life,
I'm worthier, I know,
Than those who flaunt the name of wife,
And have no seed to show.

I have fulfilled, I think with joy,
My women's destiny;
And glad am I you are a boy,
For you will fight for me.

And maybe there will come a day
You'll bear a famous name,
And men will be ashamed to say:
"He was a child of shame."

A day will dawn, divinely free,
With love in every breast,
When every child will welcome be,
And every mother blest.

When every women, wed or no,
Will deem her highest good
On grateful mankind to bestow
The Gift of Motherhood.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 14, 2023

1:05 min read
80

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABXB CXCX XD XD AEAE FDFD GHGH IAIA HJHJ DKDK
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,000
Words 214
Stanzas 10
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 2, 2, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4

Robert William Service

Robert William Service was a poet and writer sometimes referred to as the Bard of the Yukon He is best-known for his writings on the Canadian North including the poems The Shooting of Dan McGrew The Law of the Yukon and The Cremation of Sam McGee His writing was so expressive that his readers took him for a hard-bitten old Klondike prospector not the later-arriving bank clerk he actually was Robert William Service was born 16 January 1874 in Preston England but also lived in Scotland before emigrating to Canada in 1894 Service went to the Yukon Territory in 1904 as a bank clerk and became famous for his poems about this region which are mostly in his first two books of poetry He wrote quite a bit of prose as well and worked as a reporter for some time but those writings are not nearly as well known as his poems He travelled around the world quite a bit and narrowly escaped from France at the beginning of the Second World War during which time he lived in Hollywood California He died 11 September 1958 in France Incidentally he played himself in a movie called The Spoilers starring John Wayne and Marlene Dietrich more…

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