Distracted Druggist

Robert William Service 1874 – 1958



'A shilling's worth of quinine, please,'
          The customer demanded.
The druggist went down on his knees
          And from a cupboard handed
The waiting man a tiny flask:
          'Here, Sir, is what you ask.'

The buyer paid and went away,
          The druggist rubbed his glasses,
Then sudden shouted in dismay:
          'Of all the silly asses!'
And out into the street he ran
          To catch the speeding man.

Cried he: 'That quinine that you bought,
          (Since all may errors make),
I find was definitely not,--
          I sold you strychnine by mistake.
Two shillings is its price, and so
          Another bob you owe.'

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

31 sec read
37

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABABCC DEDEFF GHGHII
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 635
Words 107
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 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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