Robert William Service Poems

How grand the human race would be
If every man would wear a kilt,
A flirt of Tartan finery,
Instead of trousers, custom built!
...

A beggar in the street I saw,
Who held a hand like withered claw,
As cold as clay;
But as I had no silver groat
...

Today I opened wide my eyes,
And stared with wonder and surprise,
To see beneath November skies
An apple blossom peer;
...

After working hard all day
In the office,
How much worse on homeward way
My old cough is!
...

(16th January 1949)

I thank whatever gods may be
For all the happiness that's mine;
...

When I was daft (as urchins are),
And full if fairy lore,
I aimed an arrow at a star
And hit - the barnyard door.
...

When you're lost in the Wild, and you're scared as a child,
And Death looks you bang in the eye,
And you're sore as a boil, it's according to Hoyle
To cock your revolver and . . . die.
...

I am a stout materialist;
With abstract terms I can't agree,
And so I've made a little list
Of words that don't make sense to me.
...

It isn't the foe that we fear;
It isn't the bullets that whine;
It isn't the business career
Of a shell, or the bust of a mine;
...

I keep collecting books I know
I'll never, never read;
My wife and daughter tell me so,
And yet I never head.
...