The Homicide



They say she speeded wanton wild
     When she was warm with wine;
And so she killed a little child,
     (Could have been yours or mine).
The Judge's verdict was not mild,
     And heavy was the fine.

And yet I see her driving still,
     But maybe with more care . . .
Oh I should hate a child to kill
     With vine leaves in my hair;
I think that I should grieve until
     Life was too bleak to bear.

I think that I would see each day
     That child in beauty grow.
How she would haunt me in her play.
     And I would watch her go
To School a-dancing on her way,
     With gladness all aglow!

And then one day I might believe,
     With angel eyes ashine,
She'd say to me: 'Please do not grieve,
     Maybe the fault was mine.
Take heart,--to Heaven's comfort cleave,
     For am I not divine!'

I think I know how I would feel
     If I a child should slay;
The rest of living I would kneel
     And for God's pity pray . . .
Madam, I saw you at the wheel
     Of your new car today.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 14, 2023

57 sec read
67

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABABAB CDCDCD EFEFEF GBGBGB HEHEHE
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 969
Words 188
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 6, 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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