My Will



I've made my Will. I don't believe
           In luxury and wealth;
And to those loving ones who grieve
           My age and frailing health
I give the meed to soothe their ways
           That they may happy be,
And pass serenely all their days
           In snug security.
           
That duty done, I leave behind
           The all I have to give
To crippled children and the blind
           Who lamentably live;
Hoping my withered hand may freight
           To happiness a few
Poor innocents whom cruel fate
           Has cheated of their due.

A am no grey philanthropist,
           Too humble is my lot
Yet how I'm glad to give the grist
           My singing mill has brought.
For I have had such lyric days,
           So rich, so full, so sweet,
That I with gratitude and praise
           Would make my life complete.

I'VE MADE MY WILL: now near the end,
           At peace with all mankind,
To children lame I would be friend,
           And brother to the blind . . .
And if there be a God, I pray
           He bless my last bequest,
And in His love and pity say:
           "Good servant,--rest!"

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

56 sec read
56

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABABCDCD EXEXFGFG XXXXCHCH IEIEJKJK
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,093
Words 184
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 8, 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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