Famous Sad Poem

Robert William Service was a British-Canadian author who lived from 1874-1958. He spent much of his early career years as a banker, but his dream was to be a cowboy. This poem shows the dark side of a person, someone who wishes to kill another, and in the end decides it's better to kill himself.

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Very well written but a very disturbing situation. Powerful and powerfully sad.

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Famous Poem

A Hero

Robert W. Service By more Robert W. Service

Three times I had the lust to kill,
To clutch a throat so young and fair,
And squeeze with all my might until
No breath of being lingered there.
Three times I drove the demon out,
Though on my brow was evil sweat. . . .
And yet I know beyond a doubt
He'll get me yet, he'll get me yet.

I know I'm mad, I ought to tell
The doctors, let them care for me,
Confine me in a padded cell
And never, never set me free;
But Oh how cruel that would be!
For I am young - and comely too . . .
Yet dim my demon I can see,
And there is but one thing to do.

Three times I beat the foul fiend back;
The fourth, I know he will prevail,
And so I'll seek the railway track
And lay my head upon the rail,
And sight the dark and distant train,
And hear its thunder louder roll,
Coming to crush my cursed brain . . .
Oh God, have mercy on my soul!

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Has this poem touched you? Share your story!

Such poetic talent and imagination. It was powerful, scary, and the ending shocking. Oh, but what a fantastic work of art. I love this guy!

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Very well written but a very disturbing situation. Powerful and powerfully sad.

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  • Zack Laniado by Zack Laniado
  • 8 years ago

In my opinion this poem shows signs of OCD. This is because a common thought which people with OCD suffer is that they have intrusive thoughts which have to do with killing people. Reports show that people who actually get these thoughts are the least likely to ever act on them. This means that they keep coming back as people with OCD think about the thing which bothers them the most.

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  • Wislawa by Wislawa
  • 7 years ago

I fully agree. I had the same impression reading this poem. Someone close to me has the same problem. It is why this poem seems so tragic...

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