Analysis of The Trust



Because I've eighty years and odd,
       And darkling is my day,
I now prepare to meet my God,
       And for forgiveness pray.
Not for salvation is my plea,
       Nor Heaven hope,--just rest:
Begging: "Dear Father, pardon me,
       I did not do my best.

"I did not measure with the Just
       To serve my fellow men;
But unto levity and lust
       I loaned my precious pen.
I sorrow for the sacred touch,
       And though I toiled with zest,
Dear God, have mercy, in-as-much
       I did not do my best.

"I bless You for the gift you gave
       That brought me golden joy;
Yet here beside the gentle grave
       I grieve for its employ.
Have pity, Lord,--so well I know
       I failed you in the test,
And my last thought is one of woe:
       I did not do my best."


Scheme ababcdcD efefgdgD hihijdjD
Poetic Form
Metre 01110101 01111 11011111 010101 11010111 110111 10110101 111111 11110101 111101 11010001 111101 11010101 011111 11110011 111111 11110111 111101 11010101 111101 11011111 111001 01111111 111111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 768
Words 143
Sentences 7
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 22
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 173
Words per stanza (avg) 46
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

42 sec read
114

Robert William Service

Robert William Service was a poet and writer sometimes referred to as the Bard of the Yukon He is best-known for his writings on the Canadian North including the poems The Shooting of Dan McGrew The Law of the Yukon and The Cremation of Sam McGee His writing was so expressive that his readers took him for a hard-bitten old Klondike prospector not the later-arriving bank clerk he actually was Robert William Service was born 16 January 1874 in Preston England but also lived in Scotland before emigrating to Canada in 1894 Service went to the Yukon Territory in 1904 as a bank clerk and became famous for his poems about this region which are mostly in his first two books of poetry He wrote quite a bit of prose as well and worked as a reporter for some time but those writings are not nearly as well known as his poems He travelled around the world quite a bit and narrowly escaped from France at the beginning of the Second World War during which time he lived in Hollywood California He died 11 September 1958 in France Incidentally he played himself in a movie called The Spoilers starring John Wayne and Marlene Dietrich more…

All Robert William Service poems | Robert William Service Books

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