Robert William Service Poems

Somehow the skies don't seem so blue
As they used to be;
Blossoms have a fainter hue,
Grass less green I see.
...

I just think that dreams are best,
Just to sit and fancy things;
Give your gold no acid test,
Try not how your silver rings;
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To buy for school a copy-book
I asked my Dad for two-pence;
He gave it with a gentle look,
Although he had but few pence.
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And when I come to the dim trail-end,
I who have been Life's rover,
This is all I would ask, my friend,
Over and over and over:
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I stood beside the silken rope,
Five dollars in my hand,
And waited in my patient hope
To sit anear the Band,
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Although you deem it far from nice,
And it perchance may hurt you,
Let me suggest that cowardice
Can masquerade as virtue;
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Your children grow from you apart,
Afar and still afar;
And yet it should rejoice your heart
To see how glad they are;
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Obit 23rd April 1616

Is it not strange that on this common date,
Two titans of their age, aye of all Time,
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A gaunt and hoary slab of stone
I found in desert place,
And wondered why it lay alone
In that abandoned place.
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As nothingness draws near
How I can see
Inexorably clear
My vanity.
...