Robert William Service (Роберт Уильям Сервис)

The Lure of Little Voices

There's a cry from out the loneliness — oh, listen, Honey, listen!
   Do you hear it, do you fear it, you're a-holding of me so?
You're a-sobbing in your sleep, dear, and your lashes, how they glisten —
   Do you hear the Little Voices all a-begging me to go?

All a-begging me to leave you. Day and night they're pleading, praying,
   On the North-wind, on the West-wind, from the peak and from the plain;
Night and day they never leave me — do you know what they are saying?
   "He was ours before you got him, and we want him once again."

Yes, they're wanting me, they're haunting me, the awful lonely places;
   They're whining and they're whimpering as if each had a soul;
They're calling from the wilderness, the vast and God-like spaces,
   The stark and sullen solitudes that sentinel the Pole.

They miss my little camp-fires, ever brightly, bravely gleaming
   In the womb of desolation, where was never man before;
As comradeless I sought them, lion-hearted, loving, dreaming,
   And they hailed me as a comrade, and they loved me evermore.

And now they're all a-crying, and it's no use me denying;
   The spell of them is on me and I'm helpless as a child;
My heart is aching, aching, but I hear them, sleeping, waking;
   It's the Lure of Little Voices, it's the mandate of the Wild.

I'm afraid to tell you, Honey, I can take no bitter leaving;
   But softly in the sleep-time from your love I'll steal away.
Oh, it's cruel, dearie, cruel, and it's God knows how I'm grieving;
   But His loneliness is calling, and He knows I must obey.

1. Eighty Not Out
2. My Ancestors
3. Wrestling Match
4. The Sunshine Seeks My Little Room
5. “?” • “?”

Распечатать (To print)

Количество обращений к стихотворению: 1576

Последние стихотворения

To English version