Lowly Laureate
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
O Sacred Muse, my lyre excuse! -
My verse is vagrant singing;
Rhyme I invoke for simple folk
Of penny-wise upbringing:
For Grannies grey to paste away
Within an album cover;
For maids in class to primly pass,
And lads to linger over.
I take the clay of every day
And mould it in my fashion;
I seek to trace the commonplace
With humor and compassion.
Of earth am I, and meekly try
To be supremely human:
To please, I plan, the little man,
And win the little women.
No evil theme shall daunt my dream
Of fellow-love and pity;
I tune my lute to prostitute,
To priest I pipe my ditty.
Through gutter-grime be in my rhyme,
I bow to altars holy. . . .
Lord, humble me, so I may be
A Laureate of the Lowly.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 41 sec read
- 59 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | XAXABCXC BDXDXDXD XEXEXEEE |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 684 |
Words | 137 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8 |
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"Lowly Laureate" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/32229/lowly-laureate>.
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