Gentle Gaoler
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
Being a gaoler I'm supposed
To be a hard-boiled guy;
Yet never prison walls enclosed
A kinder soul than I:
Passing my charges precious pills
To end their ills.
And if in gentle sleep they die,
And pass to pleasant peace,
No one suspects that it is I
Who gave them their release:
No matter what the Doctor thinks,
The Warden winks.
A lifer's is a fearful fate;
It wrings the heart of me.
And what a saving to the State
A sudden death must be!
Doomed men should have the legal right
To end their plight.
And so my veronel they take,
And bid goodbye to pain;
And sleep, and never, never wake
To living hell again:
Oh call me curst or call me blest,--
I give them rest.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 40 sec read
- 67 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABABCC BDBDEE FGFGHH IXIXJJ |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 770 |
Words | 133 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6 |
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