{
 "id": "robert-w-service/the-rhyme-of-the-restless-ones",
 "title": "The Rhyme of the Restless Ones",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Robert W. Service",
 "poet_slug": "robert-w-service",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Songs of a Sourdough",
 "book_slug": "songs-of-a-sourdough",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 28,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1907,
  "venue": "Songs of a Sourdough (1907)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/songsofsourdoug00serv"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/robert-w-service_songs-of-a-sourdough",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25546",
   "https://archive.org/details/songsofsourdoug00serv"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 39,
  "n_stanzas": 9,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 65,
  "max_indent": 2
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "We couldn’t sit and study for the law;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The stagnation of a bank we couldn’t stand;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For our riot blood was surging, and we didn’t need much urging",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To excitements and excesses that are banned.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So we took to wine and drink and other things,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the devil in us struggled to be free;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Till our friends rose up in wrath, and they pointed out the path,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And they paid our debts and packed us o’er the sea.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Oh, they shook us off and shipped us o’er the foam,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To the larger lands that lure a man to roam;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And we took the chance they gave",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Of a far and foreign grave,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And we bade goodbye for evermore to home.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And some of us are climbing on the peak,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And some of us are camping on the plain;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "By pine and palm you’ll find us, with never claim to bind us,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By track and trail you’ll meet us once again.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "We are fated serfs to freedom⁠—sky and sea;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We have failed where slummy cities overflow;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But the stranger ways of earth know our pride and know our worth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And we go into the dark as fighters go.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Yes, we go into the night as brave men go,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though our faces they be often streaked with woe;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet we’re hard as cats to kill,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And our hearts are reckless still,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And we’ve danced with death a dozen times or so.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And you’ll find us in Alaska after gold,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And you’ll find us herding cattle in the South.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "We like strong drink and fun; and when the race is run,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We often die with curses in our mouth.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "We are wild as colts unbroke, but never mean;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of our sins we’ve shoulders broad to bear the blame;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But we’ll never stay in town, and we’ll never settle down,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And we’ll never have an object or an aim.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "No, there’s that in us that time can never tame;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And life will always seem a careless game;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And they’d better far forget⁠—",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Those who say they love us yet⁠—",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Forget, blot out with bitterness our name.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}