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Edifying Thoughts of a Tobacco Smoker by J.S. Bach

Posted on May 26, 2015July 12, 2015 by amelia admin

Comments that have been made over the years about Bach, my favourite Classical composer.  Incidentally, one of those quoted is also my favourite interpreter of Bach's keyboard works: Glenn Gould.

If Bach wrote such stunning music, does it not follow that he would write good poetry? Enjoy!

Edifying Thoughts of a Tobacco Smoker

by J.S. Bach

Whene’er I take my pipe and stuff it

And smoke to pass the time away

My thoughts, as I sit there and puff it,

Dwell on a picture sad and grey:

 

It teaches me that very like

Am I myself unto my pipe.

Like me this pipe, so fragrant burning,

Is made of naught but earthen clay;

To earth I too shall be returning,

And cannot halt my slow decay.

 

My well used pipe, now cracked and broken,

Of mortal life is but a token.

No stain, the pipe’s hue yet doth darken;

It remains white. Thus do I know

That when to death’s call I must harken

My body, too, all pale will grow.

To black beneath the sod ’twill turn,

Likewise the pipe, if oft it burn.

 

Or when the pipe is fairly glowing,

Behold then instantaneously,

The smoke off into thin air going,

‘Til naught but ash is left to see.

Man’s fame likewise away will burn

And unto dust his body turn.

 

How oft it happens when one’s smoking,

The tamper’s missing from it’s shelf,

And one goes with one’s finger poking

Into the bowl and burns oneself.

If in the pipe such pain doth dwell

How hot must be the pains of Hell!

 

Thus o’er my pipe in contemplation

Of such things – I can constantly

Indulge in fruitful meditation,

And so, puffing contentedly,

On land, at sea, at home, abroad,

I smoke my pipe and worship God.

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    About Amelia

    Amelia Rasmusen Buzzard is a freelance writer. She graduated in 2021 from Hillsdale College summa cum laude with degrees in philosophy and German and currently resides in upstate New York.

    Follow her Substack for gritty essays on Christianity and womanhood.

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