The Judgement



The Judge looked down, his face was grim,
          He scratched his ear;
The gangster's moll looked up at him
          With eyes of fear.
She thought: 'This guy in velvet gown,
          With balding pate,
Who now on me is looking down,
          Can seal my fate.'

The Judge thought: 'Fifteen years or ten
          I might decree.
Just let me say the word and then
          Go home to tea.
But then this poor wretch might not be
          So long alive . . .'
So with surprise he heard that he
          Was saying 'Five'.

The Judge went home. His daughter's child
          Was five that day;
And with sweet gifts around her piled
          She laughed in play.
Then mused the Judge: 'Life oft bestows
          Such evil odds.
May he who human mercy shows
          Not count on God's?'

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

40 sec read
43

Quick analysis:

Scheme AXAXBCBC DEDEEFEF GHGHIJIJ
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 778
Words 134
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8

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…

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