Alias Bill
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
We bore him to his boneyard lot
One afternoon at three;
The clergyman was on the spot
To earn his modest fee.
We sprinkled on his coffin ld
The customary loam,
And so old Bill was snugly slid
To his last home.
A lonesome celebate we thought,
For close as clam was he;
We never guessed that he had got
A lawful family,
Till lo! we saw a gorgeous wreath
Reposing on his bier,
With on a scarlet scroll beneath:
"To Father Dear."
He ordered it hisself, they said,
Before he had to go.
His folks don't know that he is dead -
Maybe they'll never know.
His step was frail, his hair was grey,
But though his sight was dim,
He liked to kid hisself that they
Still thought of him.
Maybe they did: we never knew,
And he would never tell;
Perhaps their hearts were broken too -
His was, I think . . . Ah well,
We left him in the boneyard lot
With none to shed a tear,
And just a wreath, the one he bought:
"To Father Dear."
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 55 sec read
- 82 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ababacxc xbabdxdE fgfghihi jkjkaxa E |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,000 |
Words | 184 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 7, 1 |
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"Alias Bill" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 10 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/31974/alias-bill>.
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