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Robert W. Service

Robert W. Service

The Palace

Grimy men with picks and shovels
Who in darkness sweat unseen,
Climb from out your lousy hovels,
Build a palace for the Queen;
Praise the powers that be for giving
You a chance to make a living.
 
Yet it would be better far
Could you build with cosy lure
Skyey tenements where are
Rabbit—warrens of the poor;
With a hope bright as a gem
Some day you might live in them.
 
Could the Queen just say: ‘A score
Of rich palaces have I.
Do not make me any more,—
Raise a hostel heaven—high;
House the hundreds who have need,
To their misery give heed.’
 
Could she make this gesture fine
To the pit where labour grovels,
Mother hearts would cease to pine,
Weary men would wave their shovels.
All would cry with hope serene:
‘Little children, bless the Queen!’

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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 They’ll say: “She’s broke, the fo…
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“Let’s make him a sailor,” said F… “And he will adventure the sea.” “A soldier,” said Mother, “is rat… What I would prefer him to be.” “A lawyer,” said Father, “would p…
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.
Cinderella

Cinderella in the street In a ragged gown, Sloven slippers on her feet, Shames our tidy town; Harsh her locks of ashen grey,
Futility

Dusting my books I spent a busy d… Not ancient toes, time—hallowed an… but modern volumes, classics in th… whose makers now are numbered with… Men of a generation more than mine…
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I think the things I own and love Acquire a sense of me, That gives them value far above The worth that others see. My chattels are of me a part:
A Casualty

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Hot digitty dog! Now, ain’t it qu… I’ve been abroad for over a year; Seen a helluva lot since then, Killed, I reckon, a dozen men; Six was doubtful, but six was sure…
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As I sat by my baby’s bed That’s open to the sky, There fluttered round and round my… A radiant butterfly. And as I wept —of hearts that ach…
The Pigeon Shooting

They say that Monte Carlo is A sunny place for shady people; But I’m not in the gambling biz, And sober as a parish steeple. so though this paradisal spot
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Black ants have made a musty mound My purple pine tree under, And I am often to be found, Regarding it with wonder. Yet as I watch, somehow it;s odd,
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…
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What I seek far yet seldom find Is large simplicity of mind In fellow men; For I have sprouted from the sod, Like Bobbie Burns, my earthly god…
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