Since I have come to years sedate <br />I see with more and more acumen <br />The bitter irony of Fate, <br />The vanity of all things human. <br />Why, just to-day some fellow said, <br />As I surveyed Fame's outer portal: <br />"By gad! I thought that you were dead." <br />Poor me, who dreamed to be immortal! <br /> <br />But that's the way with many men <br />Whose name one fancied time-defying; <br />We thought that they were dust and then <br />We found them living by their dying. <br />Like dogs we penmen have our day, <br />To brief best-sellerdom elected; <br />And then, "thumbs down," we slink away <br />And die forgotten and neglected. <br /> <br />Ah well, my lyric fling I've had; <br />A thousand bits of verse I've minted; <br />And some, alas! were very bad, <br />And some, alack! were best unprinted. <br />But if I've made my muse a bawd <br />(Since I am earthy as a ditch is), <br />I'll answer humbly to my God: <br />Most men at times have toyed with bitches. <br /> <br />Yes, I have played with Lady Rhyme, <br />And had a long and lovely innings; <br />And when the Umpire calls my time <br />I'll blandly quit and take my winnings. <br />I'll hie me to some Sleepydale, <br />And feed the ducks and pat the poodles, <br />And prime my paunch with cakes and ale, <br />And blether with the village noodles. <br /> <br />And then some day you'll idly scan <br />The Times obituary column, <br />And say: "Dear me, the poor old man!" <br />And for a moment you'll look solemn. <br />"So all this time he's been alive - <br />In realms of rhyme a second-rater . . . <br />But gad! to live to ninety-five: <br />Let's toast his ghost - a sherry, waiter!"<br /><br />Robert William Service<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-living-dead/
