The Man Who Knew

    The Dreamer visioned Life as it might be,
    And from his dream forthright a picture grew,
    A painting all the people thronged to see,
    And joyed therein - till came the Man Who Knew,
    Saying: "'Tis bad! Why do ye gape, ye fools!
    He painteth not according to the schools."

    The Dreamer probed Life's mystery of woe,
    And in a book he sought to give the clue;
    The people read, and saw that it was so,
    And read again - then came the Man Who Knew,
    Saying: "Ye witless ones! this book is vile:
    It hath not got the rudiments of style."

    Love smote the Dreamer's lips, and silver clear
    He sang a song so sweet, so tender true,
    That all the market-place was thrilled to hear,
    And listened rapt - till came the Man Who Knew,
    Saying: "His technique's wrong; he singeth ill.
    Waste not your time." The singer's voice was still.

    And then the people roused as if from sleep,
    Crying: "What care we if it be not Art!
    Hath he not charmed us, made us laugh and weep?
    Come, let us crown him where he sits apart."
    Then, with his picture spurned, his book unread,
    His song unsung, they found their Dreamer - DEAD.

Robert William Service

Robert William Service was a British-Canadian poet and writer, often referred to as 'the Bard of the Yukon.' He is best known for his poems about the Canadian North, particularly the Yukon Territory. Service's works include 'The Shooting of Dan McGrew' and 'The Cremation of Sam McGee,' which have contributed significantly to Canadian literature. His vivid and robust storytelling style, often dramatic and humorous, captivated audiences and made him a prominent literary figure of his time.

Robert William Service

Foreword: Rhymes of a Red Cross Man

Robert William Service, Simple Poetry

The Whistle of Sandy McGraw

Robert William Service, Simple Poetry

The Blind and the Dead

Robert William Service, Simple Poetry

Death in the Arctic

Robert William Service, Simple Poetry

English

Suggested Poems

Explore a curated selection of verses that share themes, styles, and emotional resonance with the poem you've just read.

The Dreamer

    The lone man gazed and gazed upon his gold,
    His sweat, his blood, the wage of weary days;
    But now how sweet, how doubly sweet to hold
    All gay and gleamy to the campfire blaze.
    The evening sky was sinister and cold;
    The willows shivered, wanly lay the snow;
    The uncommiserating land, so old,
    So worn, so grey, so niggard in its woe,
    Peered through its ragged shroud. The lone man sighed,
    Poured back the gaudy dust into its poke,
    Gazed at the seething river listless-eyed,
    Loaded his corn-cob pipe as if to smoke;
    Then crushed with weariness and hardship crept
    Into his ragged robe, and swiftly slept.

    . . . . .

    Hour after hour went by; a shadow slipped
    From vasts of shadow to the camp-fire...

Robert William Service

Old David Smail

He dreamed away his hours in school;
He sat with such an absent air,
The master reckoned him a fool,
And gave him up in dull despair.

When other lads were making hay
You'd find him loafing by the stream;
He'd take a book and slip away,
And just pretend to fish . . . and dream.

His brothers passed him in the race;
They climbed the hill and clutched the prize.
He did not seem to heed, his face
Was tranquil as the evening skies.

He lived apart, he spoke with few;
Abstractedly through life he went;
Oh, what he dreamed of no one knew,
And yet he seemed to be content.

I see him now, so old and gray,
His eyes with inward vision dim;
And though he faltered on the way,
Somehow I almost envied him.

At last beside his bed...

Robert William Service

The Wood-Cutter

The sky is like an envelope,
    One of those blue official things;
And, sealing it, to mock our hope,
    The moon, a silver wafer, clings.
What shall we find when death gives leave
To read - our sentence or reprieve?

I'm holding it down on God's scrap-pile, up on the fag-end of earth;
O'er me a menace of mountains, a river that grits at my feet;
Face to face with my soul-self, weighing my life at its worth;
Wondering what I was made for, here in my last retreat.

Last! Ah, yes, it's the finish. Have ever you heard a man cry?
(Sobs that rake him and rend him, right from the base of the chest.)
That's how I've cried, oh, so often; and now that my tears are dry,
I sit in the desolate quiet and wait for the infinite Rest.

Rest! Well, it's restful a...

Robert William Service

The Man from Eldorado

He's the man from Eldorado, and he's just arrived in town,
In moccasins and oily buckskin shirt.
He's gaunt as any Indian, and pretty nigh as brown;
He's greasy, and he smells of sweat and dirt.
He sports a crop of whiskers that would shame a healthy hog;
Hard work has racked his joints and stooped his back;
He slops along the sidewalk followed by his yellow dog,
But he's got a bunch of gold-dust in his sack.

He seems a little wistful as he blinks at all the lights,
And maybe he is thinking of his claim
And the dark and dwarfish cabin where he lay and dreamed at nights,
(Thank God, he'll never see the place again!)
Where he lived on tinned tomatoes, beef embalmed and sourdough bread,
On rusty beans and bacon furred with mould;
His stomach's out of kilter and his s...

Robert William Service

My Masterpiece

It's slim and trim and bound in blue;
Its leaves are crisp and edged with gold;
Its words are simple, stalwart too;
Its thoughts are tender, wise and bold.
Its pages scintillate with wit;
Its pathos clutches at my throat:
Oh, how I love each line of it!
That Little Book I Never Wrote.

In dreams I see it praised and prized
By all, from plowman unto peer;
It's pencil-marked and memorized,
It's loaned (and not returned, I fear);
It's worn and torn and travel-tossed,
And even dusky natives quote
That classic that the world has lost,
The Little Book I Never Wrote.

Poor ghost! For homes you've failed to cheer,
For grieving hearts uncomforted,
Don't haunt me now. . . . Alas! I fear
The fire of Inspiration's dead.
A humdrum way I go to-...

Robert William Service

The Logger

    In the moonless, misty night, with my little pipe alight,
    I am sitting by the camp-fire's fading cheer;
    Oh, the dew is falling chill on the dim, deer-haunted hill,
    And the breakers in the bay are moaning drear.
    The toilful hours are sped, the boys are long abed,
    And I alone a weary vigil keep;
    In the sightless, sullen sky I can hear the night-hawk cry,
    And the frogs in frenzied chorus from the creek.

    And somehow the embers' glow brings me back the long ago,
    The days of merry laughter and light song;
    When I sped the hours away with the gayest of the gay
    In the giddy whirl of fashion's festal throng.
    Oh, I ran a grilling race and I little recked the pace,
    For the lust of youth ran riot in my blood;
    But at l...

Robert William Service