Robert Service

We talked of yesteryears, of trails and treasure,
Of men who played the game and lost or won;
Of mad stampedes, of toil beyond all measure,
Of camp-fire comfort when the day was done.
We talked of sullen nights by moon-dogs haunted,
Of bird and beast and tree, of rod and gun;
Of boat and tent, of hunting-trip enchanted
Beneath the wonder […]

“Black is the sky, but the land is white–
(O the wind, the snow and the storm!)–
Father, where is our boy to-night?
Pray to God he is safe and warm.”
“Mother, mother, why should you fear?
Safe is he, and the Arctic moon
Over his cabin shines so clear–
Rest and sleep, ’twill be morning soon.”
“It’s getting dark awful sudden. […]

In the little Crimson Manual it’s written plain and clear
That who would wear the scarlet coat shall say good-bye to fear;
Shall be a guardian of the right, a sleuth-hound of the trail–
In the little Crimson Manual there’s no such word as “fail”–
Shall follow on though heavens fall, or hell’s top-turrets freeze,
Half round the world, if […]

He was an old prospector with a vision bleared and dim.
He asked me for a grubstake, and the same I gave to him.
He hinted of a hidden trove, and when I made so bold
To question his veracity, this is the tale he told.
“I do not seek the copper streak, nor yet the yellow dust;
I am […]

I.
Gold! We leapt from our benches. Gold! We sprang from our stools.
Gold! We wheeled in the furrow, fired with the faith of fools.
Fearless, unfound, unfitted, far from the night and the cold,
Heard we the clarion summons, followed the master-lure–Gold!
Men from the sands of the Sunland; men from the woods of the […]

(With apologies to the singer of the “Song of the Banjo”.)
I’m a homely little bit of tin and bone;
I’m beloved by the Legion of the Lost;
I haven’t got a “vox humana” tone,
And a dime or two will satisfy my cost.
I don’t attempt your high-falutin’ flights;
I am more or less uncertain on the key;
But I tell […]

The sky is like an envelope,
One of those blue official things;
And, sealing it, to mock our hope,
The moon, a silver wafer, clings.
What shall we find when death gives leave
To read–our sentence or reprieve?
I’m holding it down on God’s scrap-pile, up on the fag-end of earth;
O’er me a menace of mountains, a river that grits at […]

I will not wash my face;
I will not brush my hair;
I “pig” around the place–
There’s nobody to care.
Nothing but rock and tree;
Nothing but wood and stone,
Oh, God, it’s hell to be
Alone, alone, alone!
Snow-peaks and deep-gashed draws
Corral me in a ring.
I feel as if I was
The only living thing
On all this blighted earth;
And so I frowst […]

“The aristocratic ne’er-do-well in Canada frequently finds his way
into the ranks of the Royal North-West Mounted Police.” –Extract.
Hark to the ewe that bore him:
“What has muddied the strain?
Never his brothers before him
Showed the hint of a stain.”
Hark to the tups and wethers;
Hark to the old gray ram:
“We’re all of us white, but he’s black as […]

I strolled up old Bonanza, where I staked in ninety-eight,
A-purpose to revisit the old claim.
I kept thinking mighty sadly of the funny ways of Fate,
And the lads who once were with me in the game.
Poor boys, they’re down-and-outers, and there’s scarcely one to-day
Can show a dozen colors in his poke;
And me, I’m still prospecting, old […]