Abandoned Dog



They dumped it on the lonely road,
       Then like a streak they sped;
And as along the way I strode
       I thought that it was dead:
And then I saw that yelping pup
       Rise, race to catch them up.
       
You know how silly wee dogs are.
       It thought they were in fun.
Trying to overtake their car
       I saw it run and run:
But as they faster, faster went,
       It stumbled, sore and spent.

I found it prone upon the way;
       Of life was little token.
As limply in the dust it lay
       I thought its heart was broken:
Then one dim eye it opened and
       It sought to like my hand.

Of course I took it gently up
       And brought it to my wife
Who loves all dogs, and now that pup
       Shares in our happy life:
Yet how I curse the bastards who
       Its good luck never knew!

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 19, 2023

45 sec read
218

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABABCC DEDEFF GEGEXX CHCHII
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 788
Words 152
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6, 6

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…

All Robert William Service poems | Robert William Service Books

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