He wrote a play; by day and night
He strove with passion and delight;
Yet knew, long ere the curtain drop,
His drama was a sorry flop.
In Parliament he sought a seat;
Election Day brought dire defeat;
Yet he had wooed with word and pen
Prodigiously his fellow men.
And then he wrote a lighter play
That made him famous in a day.
He won a seat in Parliament,
And starry was the way he went.
Yet as he neared the door of death
They heard him say with broken breath:
‘For all I’ve spoken, planned and penned,
I’m just a wash-out in the end.’
So are we all; our triumphs won
Are mean by what we might have done.
Our victories that men applaud
Are sordid in the sight of God.
(Robert William Service)
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Based on Topics: Man Poems, God Poems, Death & Dying Poems, Sense & Perception Poems, Defeats Poems, Parliament Poems, Drama PoemsBased on Keywords: election, flop, victories, prodigiously, wash-out