Millarkey purchased a gramaphone At a dollar down and a dollar-a-week. Said he, "It's the easiest graft I've known, This dollar down and a dollar-a-week." So he bought him a rug and a fountain pen, And a leather chair and a desk and then A set of "Lives of Our Famous Men," At a dollar down and a dollar-a-week. Then he bought a hat and a suit and shoes At a dollar down and a dollar-a-week. And he joined a club where he paid his dues With a dollar down and a dollar-a-week. And he got a ring, which was fair to see, For the lily hand of his bride-to-be, And he married and paid the minister's fee, With a dollar down and a dollar-a-week. When the babies came the doctors got A dollar down and a dollar-a-week. And Millarkey clothed and fed each tot For a dollar down and a dollar-a-week. So, week by week he lived, until A ripe old age. Then he died; but still His widow's paying the funeral bill At a dollar down and a dollar-a-week. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SPIRIT OF '76 by WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS THE OLD MAN DREAMS by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES DEATH'S VALLEY by WALT WHITMAN THE MAID OF LLANWELLYN; A SONG by JOANNA BAILLIE VERSES TO A YOUNG FRIEND by BERNARD BARTON ENTERTAINMENT GIVEN BY LORD KNOWLES: SONG 1 by THOMAS CAMPION MASQUE AT THE MARRIAGE OF THE EARL OF SOMERSET: FIRST SQUIRE (1) by THOMAS CAMPION |