Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, REUBEN BRIGHT, by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

REUBEN BRIGHT, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Because he was a butcher and thereby
Last Line: In with them, and tore down the slaughter-house.
Subject(s): Butchers; Death; Love - Marital; Marriage; Dead, The; Wedded Love; Marriage - Love; Weddings; Husbands; Wives


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.





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