Pipe Smoker



Because I love the soothing weed
          And am of sober type,
I'd choose me for a friend in need
          A man who smokes a pipe.
A cove who hasn't much to say,
          And spits into the fire,
Puffing like me a pipe of clay,
          Corn-cob or briar.

A chap original of thought,
          With cheery point of view,
Who has of gumption quite a lot,
          And streaks of humour too.
He need not be a whiskered sage,
          With wisdom over-ripe:
Just give me in the old of age
          A pal who smokes a pipe.

A cigarette may make for wit,
          Although I like it not;
A good cigar, I must admit,
          Gives dignity to thought.
But as my glass of grog I sip
          I never, never gripe
If I have for companionship
          A guy who smokes a pipe.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 27, 2023

42 sec read
77

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABABCDCD EFGFHBHB IGIEJBJB
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 765
Words 139
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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