Indifference



When I am dead I will not care
         Forever more,
If sky be radiantly fair
         Or tempest roar.
If my life-hoard in sin be spent,
         My wife re-wed,--
I'll be so damned indifferent
         When I am dead.
         
When I meet up with dusty doom
         What if I rest
In common ditch or marble tomb,
         If curst or blest?
Shall my seed be to wealth or fame,
         Or gallows led,--
To me it will be all the same
         When I am dead.

So say for me no pious prayer,
         Be no tear shed;
In nothingness I cannot care,
         I'll be so dead.
I shall not reck of war or peace
         When I go hence:
Lord, let me win sublime release,--
         INDIFFERENCE!

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 13, 2023

38 sec read
80

Quick analysis:

Scheme ababxcxC dedefcfC acacgxgx
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 678
Words 125
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…

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