Old Tom

Read 'Old Tom' by 'Robert William Service' and provide your summary and literary analysis in the comments section below.

Old Tom by Robert William Service

 The harridan who holds the inn
 At which I toss a pot,
Is old and uglier than sin,--
 I'm glad she knows me not.
Indeed, for me it's hard to think,
 Although my pow's like snow,
She was the lass so fresh and pink
 I courted long ago.

I wronged her, yet it's sadly true
 She wanted to be wronged:
They mostly do, although 'tis you,
 The male bloke who is thonged.
Well, anyway I left her then
 To sail across the sea,
And no doubt she had other men,
 And soon lost sight of me.

So now she is a paunchy dame
 And mistress of the inn,
With temper tart and tounge to blame,
 Moustache and triple chin.
And though I have no proper home
 Contentedly I purr,
And from my whiskers wipe the foam,
 --Glad I did not wed her.

Yet it's so funny sitting here
 To stare into her face;
And as I raise my mug of beer
 I dream of our disgrace.
And so I come and come each day
 To more and more enjoy
The joke--that fifty years away
 I was her honey boy.

Form: Ballad

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