Hate
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
I had a bitter enemy,
His heart to hate he gave,
And when I died he swore that he
Would dance upon my grave;
That he would leap and laugh because
A livid corpse was I,
And that's the reason why I was
In no great haste to die.
And then - such is the quirk of fate,
One day with joy I read,
Despite his vitalizing hate
My enemy was dead.
Maybe the poison in his heart
Had helped to haste his doom:
He was not spared till I depart
To spit upon my tomb.
The other day I chanced to go
To where he lies alone.
'Tis easy to forgive a foe
When he is dead and gone. . . .
Poor devil! Now his day is done,
(Though bright it was and brave,)
Yet I am happy there is none
To dance upon my grave.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 24, 2023
- 44 sec read
- 272 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABABXCXC DEDEFGFG HXHXIBIB |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 669 |
Words | 148 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8 |
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"Hate" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/32162/hate>.
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