English Poetry. Robert William Service. Divine Detachment. Роберт Уильям Сервис.

Robert William Service (Роберт Уильям Сервис)

Divine Detachment

One day the Great Designer sought
His Clerk of Birth and Death.
Said he: "Two souls are in my thought,
to whom I gave life-breath.
I deemed my work was fitly done,
But yester-eve I saw
That in the finished brain of one
There was a tiny flaw.

"It worried me, and I would know,
Since I am all to blame,
What happened to them down below,
Of honour or of shame;
For if the later did befall,
My sorrow will be grave..."
Then numbers astronomical
unto the Clerk he gave.

The Keeper of the Rolls replied:
"Of them I've little trace;
But one he was a Prince of pride
And one of lowly race.
One was a Holy Saint proclaimed;
For one no hell sufficed...
Let's see; the last was Nero named,
The other... Jesus Christ."

Robert William Service’s other poems:

1. Spanish Women
2. The Prospector
3. Playboy
4. Pullman Porter
5. Abandoned Dog

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