Summary

The entire poem is presented as the monologue of a prostitute (the "midnight woman") to a police officer (the "bobby"). She begins by demanding that the officer not touch her. She accuses him of leering at her and says that although he is happy now, she will turn the law he enforces against him soon enough.

She notes that he thinks he is clever, but that she is the experienced one, and that many officers have bothered her before. She declares that she will live to see him turned out of the force, as surely as she sees the expression on his face.

She tells him that she was born right under the big clock in the center of the town, and then, in a parenthetical aside, scolds him for turning away from her. She continues, informing him that she has not arrived recently...