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Robert W. Service

Robert W. Service

Grin

If you’re up against a bruiser and you’re getting knocked about—
 
Grin.
 
If you’re feeling pretty groggy, and you’re licked beyond a doubt—
 
Grin.
 
Don’t let him see you’re funking, let him know with every clout,
Though your face is battered to a pulp, your blooming heart is stout;
Just stand upon your pins until the beggar knocks you out—
 
And grin.
 
This life’s a bally battle, and the same advice holds true
 
Of grin.
 
If you’re up against it badly, then it’s only one on you,
 
So grin.
 
If the future’s black as thunder, don’t let people see you’re blue;
Just cultivate a cast—iron smile of joy the whole day through;
If they call you “Little Sunshine”, wish that THEY’D no troubles, too—
 
You may—grin.
 
Rise up in the morning with the will that, smooth or rough,
 
You’ll grin.
 
Sink to sleep at midnight, and although you’re feeling tough,
 
Yet grin.
 
There’s nothing gained by whining, and you’re not that kind of stuff;
You’re a fighter from away back, and you WON’T take a rebuff;
Your trouble is that you don’t know when you have had enough—
 
Don’t give in.
 
If Fate should down you, just get up and take another cuff;
You may bank on it that there is no philosophy like bluff,
 
And grin.

#1907 #AmericanWriters #TheSpellOfTheYukonAndOtherVerses

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Piaciuto o affrontato da...
M Sheila Rabaut
Altre opere di Robert W. Service...
Noctambule

Zut! it’s two o’clock. See! the lights are jumping. Finish up your bock, Time we all were humping. Waiters stack the chairs,
The Telegraph Operator

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;
Madam La Maquise

Said Hongray de la Glaciere unto… "I want to take a wife mon Père,"… And whose, my son?” he slyly said;… Cried, “Fi! Papa, I mean —to wed… The Marquis de la Glaciere respon…
Enemy Conscript

What are we fighting for, We fellows who go to war? fighting for Freedom’s sake! (You give me the belly—ache.) Freedom to starve or slave!
The Hinterland

You speak to me, but does your spe… With truest truth your thought con… I listen to your words and each Is what I wait to hear you say. The pattern that your lips reveal,
Cheer

It’s a mighty good world, so it is… When even the worst is said. There’s a smile and a tear, a sigh… But better be living than dead; A joy and a pain, a loss and a gai…
The Lark

From wrath—red dawn to wrath—red d… The guns have brayed without abate… And now the sick sun looks upon The bleared, blood—boltered fields… As if it loathed to rise again.
The Centenarian

Great Grandfather was ninety—nine And so it was our one dread, That though his health was superfi… He’d fail to make the hundred. Though he was not a rolling stone
Babette

My Lady is dancing so lightly, The belle of the Embassy Ball; I lied as I kissed her politely, And hurried away from it all. I’m taxiing up to Montmartre,
The Black Sheep

“The aristocratic ne’er—do—well in… into the ranks of the Royal North… Hark to the ewe that bore him: “What has muddied the strain? Never his brothers before him
My Dog

My Dog 'Twas in a pub just off the Stran… When I was in my cups, There passed a bloke with in his h… Two tiny puling pups;
The Sniper

Because back home in Tennessee I was a champeen shot, They made a sniper outa me An’ ninety krouts I got: I wish to Christ I’d not!
Room 4: The Painter Chap

He gives me such a bold and curiou… That young American across the wa… As if he’d like to put me in a boo… (Fancies himself a poet, so they s… Ah well! He’ll make no “document”…
Portrait of Charles and Georges Durand-Ruel , by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
The Ordinary Man

If you and I should chance to mee… I guess you wouldn’t care; I’m sure you’d pass me in the stre… As if I wasn’t there; You’d never look me in the face,
 1
The Centenarians

I asked of ancient gaffers three The way of their ripe living, And this is what they told to me Without Misgiving. The First: 'The why I’ve lived s…



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