The Headliner And The Breadliner
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
Moko, the Educated Ape is here,
The pet of vaudeville, so the posters say,
And every night the gaping people pay
To see him in his panoply appear;
To see him pad his paunch with dainty cheer,
Puff his perfecto, swill champagne, and sway
Just like a gentleman, yet all in play,
Then bow himself off stage with brutish leer.
And as to-night, with noble knowledge crammed,
I 'mid this human compost take my place,
I, once a poet, now so dead and damned,
The woeful tears half freezing on my face:
"O God!" I cry, "let me but take his shape,
Moko's, the Blest, the Educated Ape."
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 33 sec read
- 112 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABBCCBBA DEDEFF |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 600 |
Words | 112 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 6 |
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"The Headliner And The Breadliner" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 10 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/32551/the-headliner-and-the-breadliner>.
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