Poems by Robert W Service

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Longevity

I watched one day a parrot grey - 'twas in a barber shop.

"Cuckold!" he cried, until I sighed: "You feathered devil, stop!"

Then balefully he looked at me, and slid along his perch,

With sneering eye that seemed to pry me very soul to search.

So fierce, so bold, so grim, so cold, so agate was his stare:

And then that bird I thought I heard this sentiment declare: -

"As it appears, a hundred years a parrot may survive,

When you are gone I'll sit upon this perch and be alive.

Robert W Service

Your Poem

My poem may be yours indeed

In melody and tone,

If in its rhythm you can read

A music of your own;

If in its pale woof you can weave

Your lovelier design,

'Twill make my lyric, I believe,

More yours than mine.

Robert W Service

Book Borrower

I am a mild man, you'll agree,

But red my rage is,

When folks who borrow books from me

Turn down their pages.

Or when a chap a book I lend,

And find he's loaned it

Without permission to a friend -

As if he owned it.

Robert W Service

Triumph

Why am I full of joy although

It drizzles on the links?

Why am I buying Veuve Cliquot,

And setting up the drinks?

Why stand I like a prince amid

My pals and envy none?

Ye gods of golf! Today I did

A Hole in One.

Robert W Service

Birthdays

Let us have birthdays every day,

(I had the thought while I was shaving)

Because a birthday should be gay,

And full of grace and good behaving.

We can't have cakes and candles bright,

And presents are beyond our giving,

But let lt us cherish with delight

The birthday way of lovely living.

Robert W Service

The Quest

I sought Him on the purple seas,

I sought Him on the peaks aflame;

Amid the gloom of giant trees

And canyons lone I called His name;

The wasted ways of earth I trod:

In vain! In vain! I found not God.

I sought Him in the hives of men,

The cities grand, the hamlets gray,

Robert W Service

A Hero

Three times I had the lust to kill,

To clutch a throat so young and fair,

And squeeze with all my might until

No breath of being lingered there.

Three times I drove the demon out,

Though on my brow was evil sweat. . . .

And yet I know beyond a doubt

He'll get me yet, he'll get me yet.

Robert W Service

Abandoned Dog

They dumped it on the lonely road,

Then like a streak they sped;

And as along the way I strode

I thought that it was dead:

And then I saw that yelping pup

Rise, race to catch them up.

You know how silly wee dogs are.

Robert W Service

On The Wire

O God, take the sun from the sky!

It's burning me, scorching me up.

God, can't You hear my cry?

Water! A poor, little cup!It's laughing, the cursed sun!

See how it swells and swells

Fierce as a hundred hells!

God, will it never have done?

Robert W Service

Wrestling Match

What guts he had, the Dago lad

Who fought that Frenchman grim with guile;

For nigh an hour they milled like mad,

And mauled the mat in rare old style.

Then up and launched like catapults,

And tangled, twisted, clinched and clung,

Then tossed in savage somersaults,

And hacked and hammered, ducked and swung;

Robert W Service

Eighty Not Out

In the gay, gleamy morn I adore to go walking,

And oh what sweet people I meet on my way!

I hail them with joy for I love to be talking,

Although I have nothing important to say.

I cheer the old grannies whose needles are plying;

I watch the wee kiddies awhoop at their play:

When sunny the sky is, you'll not be denying

The morning's the bonniest bit of the day.

Robert W Service

Bessie's Boil

Says I to my Missis: "Ba goom, lass! you've something I see, on your mind."

Says she: "You are right, Sam, I've something. It 'appens it's on me be'ind.

A Boil as 'ud make Job jealous. It 'urts me no end when I sit."

Says I: "Go to 'ospittel, Missis. They might 'ave to coot it a bit."

Says she: "I just 'ate to be showin' the part of me person it's at."

Says I: "Don't be fussy; them doctors see sights more 'orrid than that."

So Misses goes off togged up tasty, and there at the 'ospittel door

They tells 'er to see the 'ouse Doctor, 'oose office is Room Thirty-four.

Robert W Service