If I should die

Benjamin Franklin King 1857 (St. Joseph, Michigan) – 1894 (Bowling Green, Kentucky)



1     If I should die to-night
2         And you should come to my cold corpse and say,
3         Weeping and heartsick o'er my lifeless clay --
4         If I should die to-night,
5     And you should come in deepest grief and woe --
6         And say: "Here's that ten dollars that I owe,"
7         I might arise in my large white cravat
8         And say, "What's that?"

9     If I should die to-night
10       And you should come to my cold corpse and kneel,
11       Clasping my bier to show the grief you feel,
12       I say, if I should die to-night
13   And you should come to me, and there and then
14       Just even hint 'bout payin' me that ten,
15       I might arise the while,
16       But I'd drop dead again.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

42 sec read
123

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABBACCAX ADDAEEXE
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 720
Words 138
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 8, 8

Benjamin Franklin King

Benjamin Franklin King Jr. was an American humorist and poet whose work published under the names Ben King or the pseudonym Bow Hackley achieved notability in his lifetime and afterwards. According to a short biography by Opie Read, as a child he was reputed a piano prodigy; in adult life he was by many deemed a failure for his lack of business instinct. But as "a poet, a gentle satirist and a humorist of the highest order, he achieved notability" in his short life for a series of newspaper published poems. more…

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    "If I should die" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/4247/if-i-should-die>.

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