Pragmatic



When young I was an Atheist,
         Yea, pompous as a pigeon
No opportunity I missed
         To satirize religion.
I sneered at Scripture, scoffed at Faith,
         I blasphemed at believers:
Said I: "There's nothing after Death,--
         Your priests are just deceivers."
         
In middle age I was not so
         Contemptuous and caustic.
Thought I: "There's much I do not know:
         I'd better be agnostic.
The hope of immortality
         'Tis foolish to be flouting."
So in the end I came to be
         A doubter of my doubting.

Now I am old, with steps inclined
         To hesitate and falter;
I find I get such peace of mind
         Just sitting by an altar.
So Friends, don't scorn the family pew,
         The preachments of the kirks:
Religion may be false or true,
         But by the Lord!--it works.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 15, 2023

41 sec read
60

Quick analysis:

Scheme XAXAXBXB CDCDEFEF GHGHIJIJ
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 813
Words 137
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8

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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