Poeticous Logo
en
English Español Français Italiano
Robert W. Service

Robert W. Service

The Quest

I sought Him on the purple seas,
I sought Him on the peaks aflame;
Amid the gloom of giant trees
And canyons lone I called His name;
The wasted ways of earth I trod:
In vain! In vain! I found not God.
 
I sought Him in the hives of men,
The cities grand, the hamlets gray,
The temples old beyond my ken,
The tabernacles of to—day;
All life that is, from cloud to clod
I sought. . . . Alas! I found not God.
 
Then after roamings far and wide,
In streets and seas and deserts wild,
I came to stand at last beside
The death—bed of my little child.
Lo! as I bent beneath the rod
I raised my eyes . . . and there was God.

Other works by Robert W. Service...
No Neck-Tie Party

A prisoner speaks: Majority of twenty—three, I face the Judge with joy and gle… For am I not a lucky chap — No more hanging, no more cap;
The Farmer's Daughter

The Rector met a little lass Who led a heifer by a rope. Said he: “Why don’t you go to Mas… Do you not want to please the Pop… The village maiden made reply,
The Healer

“Tuberculosis should not be,” The old professor said. “If folks would hearken unto me 'Twould save a million dead. Nay, no consumptive needs to die,
A Rolling Stone

There’s sunshine in the heart of m… My blood sings in the breeze; The mountains are a part of me, I’m fellow to the trees. My golden youth I’m squandering,
 1
Plebeian Plutocrat

I own a gorgeous Cadillac, A chauffeur garbed in blue; And as I sit behind his back His beefy neck I view. Yet let me whisper, though you may
Was It You?

Was It You? “Hullo, young Jones! with your ti… And your pen behind your ear; Will you mark my cheque in the usu… For I’m overdrawn, I fear.”
Old Crony

I had a friend, a breezy friend I liked an awful lot; And in his company no end Of happiness I got. We clicked in temper, taste and mo…
Book Borrower

I am a mild man, you’ll agree, But red my rage is, When folks who borrow books from m… Turn down their pages. Or when a chap a book I lend,
My Centenarian

A hundred years is a lot of living I’ve often thought. and I’ll know… Some day if the gods are good in g… And grant me to turn the century. Yet in all my eighty years of bein…
Belated Conscience

To buy for school a copy—book I asked my Dad for two—pence; He gave it with a gentle look, Although he had but few pence. 'Twas then I proved myself a croo…
The Tunnel

Toil’s a tunnel, there’s no way ou… For fellows, the like o’ me; A beggar wi’ only a crust an’ a cl… At the worst o’ the worst is free; but I work to eat, an’ I eat to w…
You and Me

I’m part of people I have known And they are part of me; The seeds of thought that I have… In other minds I see. There’s something of me in the thr…
Two Men (J. L. and R. B.)

In the Northland there were three Pukka Pliers of the pen; Two of them had Fame in fee And were loud and lusty men; By them like a shrimp was I —
Music in the Bush

O’er the dark pines she sees the s… And in the west, all tremulous, a… And soothing sweet she hears the m… Of cow—bells jangled in the fields… Quite listless, for her daily sten…
The Bohemian

Up in my garret bleak and bare I tilted back on my broken chair, And my three old pals were with me… Hunger and Thirst and Cold; Hunger scowled at his scurvy mate:



Top