Poem by Robert William Service

Book Borrower

I am a mild man, you'll agree,
But red my rage is,
When folks who borrow books from me
Turn down their pages.

Or when a chap a book I lend,
And find he's loaned it
Without permission to a friend -
As if he owned it.

But worst of all I hate those crooks
(May hell-fires burn them!)
Who beg the loan of cherished books
And don't return them.

My books are tendrils of myself
No shears can sever...
May he who rapes one from its shelf
Be damned forever.

1. The Little Old Log Cabin
2. The Sunshine Seeks My Little Room
3. Bessie's Boil
4. Wrestling Match
5. The Low-Down White

Print

2741 Views

Last Poems

To Russian version