Robert William Service Poems

Up from the evil day
Of wattle and of woad,
Along man's weary way
Dark Pain has been the goad.
...

What I seek far yet seldom find
Is large simplicity of mind
In fellow men;
For I have sprouted from the sod,
...

'Twas in a pub in Battersea
They call the "Rose and Crown,"
Quite suddenly, it seemed to me,
The Lord was looking down;
...

Never knew Jim, did you? Our boy Jim?
Bless you, there was the likely lad;
Supple and straight and long of limb,
Clean as a whistle, and just as glad.
...

The Men of Seville are, they say,
The laziest of Spain.
Consummate artists in delay,
Allergical to strain;
...

I knew three sisters,--all were sweet;
Wishful to wed was I,
And wondered which would mostly meet
The matrimonial tie.
...

Ruins in Rome are four a penny,
And here along the Appian Way
I see the monuments of many
Esteemed almighty in their day. . . .
...

I'll wait until my money's gone
Before I take the sleeping pills;
Then when they find me in the dawn,
Remote from earthly ails and ills
...

By parents I would not be pinned,
Nor in my home abide,
For I was wanton as the wind
And tameless as the tide;
...

You ask me what I call Success -
It is, I wonder, Happiness?

It is not wealth, it is not fame,
...