When I Was an Editor
Stephan Stephansson 1853 (Stefán Guðmundur Guðmundsson Skagafjörður) – 1927
So maudlin, with pity and pathos I stood
If someone who erred got the lashes;
If hanged, I'd weep over the ashes.
With vocal dispraise such injustice I viewed
But somehow as soon as the war-craze ensued,
When slaughter en masse was the popular mood
And corpses all over the planet were strewed,
With dumb indecision I stood.
For there was the problem of friendships and food
- One's sympathies nobody cashes.
To dampen my conscience-clashes
The cracks in my honor I artfully glued
With unctuous lies that I hastily brewed
- And cheered just as loud as I could.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 31 sec read
- 110 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABXC CCAA CBBCCA |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 555 |
Words | 102 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 6 |
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"When I Was an Editor" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/35636/when-i-was-an-editor>.
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