The Boy Out Of Church

Robert Graves 1895 (Wimbledon) – 1985 (Deià)



As Jesus and his followers
Upon a Sabbath morn
Were walking by a wheat field
They plucked the ears of corn.

They plucked it, they rubbed it,
They blew the husks away,
Which grieved the pious pharisees
Upon the Sabbath day.

And Jesus said, 'A riddle
Answer if you can,
Was man made for the Sabbath
Or Sabbath made for man?'

I do not love the Sabbath,
The soapsuds and the starch,
The troops of solemn people
Who to Salvation march.

I take my book, I take my stick
On the Sabbath day,
In woody nooks and valleys
I hide myself away.

To ponder there in quiet
God's Universal Plan,
Resolved that church and Sabbath
Were never made for man.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

36 sec read
82

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABXB XCAC DEFE FGDG XCXC XEFE
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 619
Words 123
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4

Robert Graves

Robert von Ranke Graves was an English poet, scholar/translator/writer of antiquity specializing in Classical Greece and Rome, novelist and soldier in World War One. more…

All Robert Graves poems | Robert Graves Books

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