Vanity



Vanity of vanities,
Everything is vanity;
And filled with iniquities,
Chaotic insanity.

What does man gain by toil,
Drudging under the sun;
To plow and till the soil,
Until the day has been done.

A generation arrives,
But another one will go;
While maybe one survives,
Only in Heaven would know.

The sun rises and goes down,
Hastens around for a new day;
As night falls upon the town,
The sky has turned a dark gray.

The wind is blowing to the south,
Its circuit the wind returns;
Caused by the Lord of His mouth,
From the momentum it earns.

All streams run into the sea,
Where the rivers merge to flow;
Wind causes waves to be free,
Against the shore to billow.

All things full of weariness,
The eye is not satisfied;
Only sees the dreariness,
People are not purified.

Copyright ©2023 Richard Newton Sherrer

About this poem

Everything is Futile Ecclesiastes 1:2-8

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Written on December 12, 2023

Submitted by richardnsherrer on December 11, 2023

54 sec read
3

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH IJIJ BFBF KLKL X
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 816
Words 181
Stanzas 8
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 1

Richard Newton Sherrer

I was born and raised on a farm in Pennsylvania. It was a small family farm that was handed down through 8 generations of Sherrer men until my father; Newton just could not make a living from it any longer. He thought that I would make a better living away from the farm. So, I decided to join the Air Force in 1969 upon graduating from high school. I gained quite a bit of experience and insight on life while in the service. Even though I was only stationed on the east coast of the US, my Air Force career took me to Germany and Korea. After 20 years wearing of the blue uniform, I decided going in a different direction and found myself becoming very diverse in many different fields. Something still seemed missing to me after being separated from the service for about 10 years. The Air Force was a way of life for me, but really missed life in Korea. I found myself changing careers again. Poetry was an interest of his since my days in high school. With returning to the Lord, I felt motivated to write of my Christian beliefs. I started looking at Bible verses and reflecting on my own personal experiences. The Bible was found to be as true today as to when the various books were written. I could see much of what the Bible is teaching us as valid as every in modern time. It felt only natural to me on using his personal experience based on Bible verses and see much of my own life written in the Scriptures. God inspires me what to write about though. I do not claim to be an expert on God or the Bible. I am just a Christian who has become enlightened to write poetic verses from the Holy Scriptures. more…

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