Project Gutenberg 2015-01-10 Public domain in the USA. 62 Baker, George M. (George Melville) 1832 1890 Baker, George Melville Baker, G. M. (George Melville) Billings, Hammatt 1818 1874 Billings, Charles Howland Hammatt Billings, Hammett Billings An Old Man's Prayer Produced by David Edwards and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) "An Old Man's Prayer" by George M. Baker is a moralistic poem written in the late 19th century. This work takes the form of a narrative that conveys a cautionary tale about the dangers of alcohol, exploring themes of loss, regret, and redemption. The likely topic centers on the old man's heartfelt plea to a group of young men to avoid the pitfalls of drinking, drawing from his own painful experiences. In the story, an elderly man intrudes on a festive gathering of young men celebrating one of their own who is about to leave for war. He shares his tragic tale of wealth turned to loss due to the curse of alcoholism, which claimed the lives of his three sons—one who succumbed to drinking, another who died at sea after excess, and a third who became a soldier. As he tells his story, he implores the young men to shun the temptations of alcohol, culminating in a powerful moment when one brave soldier takes a stand to reject wine in favor of pure water. The poem poignantly closes with the hopeful imagery of young men marching off to battle, armed not just with weapons, but with the protective shield of temperance instilled by the old man's prayer. (This is an automatically generated summary.) en United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Poetry American poetry -- 19th century Temperance -- Poetry PS Text Browsing: History - American Browsing: Literature Browsing: Poetry 46904 46942 2024-09-20T06:10:27.603532 2023-09-20T16:03:40.542534 text/html text/html 43022 2015-01-10T10:56:44 text/html; charset=us-ascii 840502 2015-01-10T10:57:38 text/html; charset=us-ascii application/zip 921880 2024-09-20T06:10:29.832580 application/epub+zip 920717 2024-09-20T06:10:28.120550 application/epub+zip 80916 2024-09-20T06:10:27.817551 application/epub+zip 951268 2024-09-20T06:10:31.224047 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 943888 2024-09-20T06:10:29.518645 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 105664 2022-09-21T18:08:20.623858 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 33026 32836 2024-09-20T06:10:27.389534 2023-09-20T16:03:40.357533 text/plain; charset=us-ascii text/plain 33044 2015-01-10T10:56:44 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 12431 2015-01-10T10:57:38 text/plain; charset=us-ascii application/zip 19878 2024-09-20T06:10:31.351023 application/rdf+xml 15238 2024-09-20T06:10:27.885555 image/jpeg 1943 2024-09-20T06:10:27.850806 image/jpeg 846612 2024-09-20T06:10:27.639557 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog en.wikipedia en.wikipedia