The Scribe’s Prayer
| When from my fumbling hand the tired pen falls, And in the twilight weary droops my head; While to my quiet heart a still voice calls, Calls me to join my kindred of the Dead: Grant that I may, O Lord, ere rest be mine, Write to Thy praise one radiant, ringing line. | |
| For all of worth that in this clay abides, The leaping rapture and the ardent flame, The hope, the high resolve, the faith that guides: All, all is Thine, and liveth in Thy name: Lord, have I dallied with the sacred fire! Lord, have I trailed Thy glory in the mire! | |
| E’en as a toper from the dram-shop reeling, Sees in his garret’s blackness, dazzling fair, All that he might have been, and, heart-sick, kneeling, Sobs in the passion of a vast despair: So my ideal self haunts me alway — When the accounting comes, how shall I pay? | |
| For in the dark I grope, nor understand; And in my heart fight selfishness and sin: Yet, Lord, I do not seek Thy helping hand; Rather let me my own salvation win: Let me through strife and penitential pain Onward and upward to the heights attain. | |
| Yea, let me live my life, its meaning seek; Bear myself fitly in the ringing fight; Strive to be strong that I may aid the weak; Dare to be true — O God! the Light, the Light! Cometh the Dark so soon. I’ve mocked Thy Word; Yet do I know Thy Love: have mercy, Lord.... |
FINIS
Some of Service’s Books of Poetry:
The Spell of the Yukon (1907) a.k.a. Songs of a Sourdough
Ballads of a Cheechako (1909)
1
Rhymes of a Rolling Stone (1912)
Rhymes of a Red Cross Man (1916)
Ballads of a Bohemian (1921)
Bar-Room Ballads (1940)
The Complete Poems (1947?) [This is a compilation of the first six books.]
Songs of a Sunlover
Rhymes of a Roughneck
Lyrics of a Low Brow
Rhymes of a Rebel
The Collected Poems
Songs For My Supper (1953)
Rhymes For My Rags (1956)
Some other books by Robert W. Service:
Novels:
The Trail of ’98 — A Northland Romance (1910)
The Pretender
The Poisoned Paradise
The Roughneck
The Master of the Microbe
The House of Fear
Autobiography:
Ploughman of the Moon (1945)
Harper of Heaven (1948)
Miscellaneous:
Why not grow Young
Notes
1 A Sourdough is an old-timer, while a Cheechako is a newbie.