Because he was a butcher and thereby Did earn an honest living (and did right), I would not have you think that Reuben Bright Was any more a brute than you or I; For when they told him that his wife must die, He stared at them, and shook with grief and fright, And cried like a great baby half that night, And made the women cry to see him cry. And after she was dead, and he had paid The singers and the sexton and the rest, He packed a lot of things that she had made Most mournfully away in an old chest Of hers, and put some chopped-up cedar boughs In with them, and tore down the slaughter-house. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...FIFTH AVENUE-SPRING AFTERNOON by LOUIS UNTERMEYER THE LOST WAR-SLOOP by EDNA DEAN PROCTOR THE ARGONAUTS (ARGONATUICA): THE MOVING ROCKS by APOLLONIUS RHODIUS NOT YE WHO GOAD by LOUISA SARAH BEVINGTON PSALM 144 by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE UNDER A THOUSAND WORDS by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN |