My rhymes are rough, and often in my rhyming
I’ve drifted, silver—sailed, on seas of dream,
Hearing afar the bells of Elfland chiming,
Seeing the groves of Arcadie agleam.
I was the thrall of Beauty that rejoices
From peak snow—diademed to regal star;
Yet to mine aerie ever pierced the voices,
The pregnant voices of the Things That Are.
The Here, the Now, the vast Forlorn around us;
The gold—delirium, the ferine strife;
The lusts that lure us on, the hates that hound us;
Our red rags in the patch—work quilt of Life.
The nameless men who nameless rivers travel,
And in strange valleys greet strange deaths alone;
The grim, intrepid ones who would unravel
The mysteries that shroud the Polar Zone.
These will I sing, and if one of you linger
Over my pages in the Long, Long Night,
And on some lone line lay a calloused finger,
Saying: “It’s human—true—it hits me right”;
Then will I count this loving toil well spent;
Then will I dream awhile—content, content.
Other works by Robert W. Service...
