Robert W Service

Rhymes of a Rolling Stone Robert W Service

Book Excerpt: ...the plangent sea to the prairie, From the slum to the heart of the Wild. From the red-rimmed star to the speck of sand, From the vast to the greatly small; For I know that the whole for good is planned, And I want to see it all. To see it all, the wide world-way, From the fig-leaf belt to the Pole; With never a one to say me nay, And none to cramp my soul. In belly-pinch I will pay the price, But God! let me be free; For once I know in the long ago, They made a slave of me. In a flannel shirt from earth's clean dirt, Here, pal, is my calloused hand!Oh, I love each day as a rover may, Nor seek to understand. To ENJOY is good enough for me; The gipsy of God am I; Then here's a hail to each flaring dawn!And here's a cheer to the night that's gone!And may I go a-roaming onUntil the day I die!Then every star shall sing to meIts song of liberty; And every morn shall bring to meIts mandate to be free. In every throbbing vein of meI'll feel the vast Earth-call; O body, heart and brain of mePraise Him who made it all!The Soldier of Fortune"Deny your God!" they ringed me with their spears; Blood-crazed were they, and reeking from the strife; Hell-hot their hate, and venom-fanged their sneers, And one man spat on me and nursed a knife. And there was I, sore wounded and alone, I, the last living of my slaughtered band. Oh sinister the sky, and cold as stone!In one red laugh of horror reeled the land. And dazed and desperate I faced their spears, And like a flame out-leaped that naked knife, And like a serpent stung their bitter jeers: "Deny your God, and we will give you life."Deny my God! Oh life was very sweet!And it is hard in youth and hope to die; And there my comrades dear lay at my feet, And in that blear of blood soon must I lie. And yet