Dyspeptic Clerk
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
I think I'll buy a little field,
Though scant am I of pelf,
And hold the hope that it may yield
A living for myself;
For I have toiled ten thousand days
With ledger and with pen,
And I am sick of city ways
And soured with city men.
So I will plant my little plot
With lettuce, beans and peas;
Potatoes too - oh quite a lot,
An pear and apple trees.
My carrots will be coral pink,
My turnips ivory;
And I'll forget my pen and ink,
And office slavery.
My hut shall have a single room
Monastically bare;
A faggot fire for the winter gloom,
A table and a chair.
A Frugalist I call myself,
My needs are oh so small;
My luxury a classic shelf
Of poets on the wall.
Here as I dream, how grey and cold
The City seems to me;
Another world of green and gold
Incessantly I see.
So I will fling my pen away,
And learn a how to wield;
A cashbook and a stool today . . .
Soon, soon a Little Field.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 03, 2023
- 55 sec read
- 66 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABABCDCD EFEFGHGH IJIJBKBK LHLHMAMA |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 860 |
Words | 182 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8 |
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"Dyspeptic Clerk" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 12 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/32092/dyspeptic-clerk>.
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