All Poems

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The Ape And God

© Robert William Service

Son put a poser up to me
That made me scratch my head:
"God made the whole wide world," quoth he;
"That's right, my boy," I said.

Successful Failure

© Robert William Service

I wonder if successful men
Are always happy?
And do they sing with gusto when
Springtime is sappy?

Her Toys

© Robert William Service

I sat her in her baby chair,
And set upon its tray
Her kewpie doll and teddy bear,
But no, she would not play.

The Blood-Red Fourragere

© Robert William Service

What was the blackest sight to me
Of all that campaign?
A naked woman tied to a tree
With jagged holes where her breasts should be,
Rotting there in the rain.

Contentment

© Robert William Service

Bed and bread are all I need
In my happy day;
Love of Nature is my creed,
Unto her I pray;
Sun and sky my spirit feed
On my happy way.

Simplicity

© Robert William Service

"The world is too much with us," wrote
Wise Wordsworth, whom I love to quote,
When rhymes are coy;
And simple is the world I see,
With bud and bloom and brook and tree
To give me joy.

Poor Kid

© Robert William Service

Mumsie and Dad are raven dark
And I am lily blonde.
''Tis strange,' I once heard nurse remark,
'You do not correspond.'
And yet they claim me as their own,
Born of their flesh and bone.

Surtax

© Robert William Service

We pitied him because
He lived alone;
His tiny cottage was
His only own.

Fool Faith

© Robert William Service

"But grant Design,--we may imply
The job took toil aplenty;
Then why one sole designer, why
Not ten or twenty.

Young Mother

© Robert William Service

Her baby was so full of glee,
And through the day
It laughed and babbled on her knee
In happy play.

Gods In The Gutter

© Robert William Service

I dreamed I saw three demi-gods who in a cafe sat,
And one was small and crapulous, and one was large and fat;
And one was eaten up with vice and verminous at that.

Bill's Prayer

© Robert William Service

I never thought that Bill could say
A proper prayer;
'Twas more in his hard-bitten way
To cuss and swear;

The Womb

© Robert William Service

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

Marie Antoinette

© Robert William Service

They told to Marie Antoinette:
"The beggers at your gate
Have eyes too sad for tears to wet,
And for your pity wait."

Lottery Ticket

'A ticket for the lottery
I've purchased every week,' said she
'For years a score
Though desperately poor am I,
Oh how I've scrimped and scraped to buy
One chance more.

Patches

So each boy asked his Ma to match
With bluer blue my super-patch,
And when to school they came en masse,
It was the emblem of our class,
Admired by every bonnie lass.

The Trail Of No Return

So now I take a bitter road
Whereon no bourne I see,
And wearily I lift the load
That once I bore with glee.

Ripe Fruit

Through eyelet holes I watched the crowd
Rain of confetti fling;
Their joy is lush, their laughter loud,
For Carnival is King.

Fortitude

Time, the Jester, jeers at you;
Your life's a fleeting breath;
Your birthday's flimsy I.O.U.
To that old devil, Death.

The Bohemian

Up in my garret bleak and bare
I tilted back on my broken chair,
And my three old pals were with me there,
Hunger and Thirst and Cold;