Anybody want to take up the cause of Robert W. Service?
I will. "The Cremation of Sam McGee" is a great, sly favorite. It seems to be cunningly written as "good bad poetry." Here's a short Service poem I've always treasured:
MY MADONNA
I haled me a woman from the street,
Shameless, but, oh, so fair!
I bade her sit in the model's seat
And painted her sitting there.
I hid all traces of her heart unclean;
I painted a babe at her breast;
I painted her as she might have been
If the Worst had been the Best.
She laughed at my picture and went away.
Then came, with a knowing nod,
A connoisseur, and I heard him say;
"'Tis Mary, the Mother of God."
So, I painted a halo round her hair,
And I sold her and took my fee,
And she hangs in the church of Saint Hillaire,
Where you and all may see.
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