Dreams Are Best



I just think that dreams are best,
     Just to sit and fancy things;
     Give your gold no acid test,
Try not how your silver rings;
Fancy women pure and good,
     Fancy men upright and true:
     Fortressed in your solitude,
Let Life be a dream to you.

For I think that Thought is all;
     Truth's a minion of the mind;
     Love's ideal comes at call;
As ye seek so shall ye find.
But ye must not seek too far;
     Things are never what they seem:
     Let a star be just a star,
And a woman -- just a dream.

O you Dreamers, proud and pure,
     You have gleaned the sweet of life!
     Golden truths that shall endure
Over pain and doubt and strife.
     I would rather be a fool
          Living in my Paradise,
          Than the leader of a school,
     Sadly sane and weary wise.

     O you Cynics with your sneers,
          Fallen brains and hearts of brass,
          Tweak me by my foolish ears,
     Write me down a simple ass!
I'll believe the real "you"
     Is the "you" without a taint;
     I'll believe each woman too,
But a slightly damaged saint.

Yes, I'll smoke my cigarette,
     Vestured in my garb of dreams,
     And I'll borrow no regret;
All is gold that golden gleams.
So I'll charm my solitude
     With the faith that Life is blest,
     Brave and noble, bright and good, . . .
     Oh, I think that dreams are best!

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:13 min read
141

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABABCDED FGFGHIHI JKJKLXLX MNMNDODO PQPQEACA
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,320
Words 237
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8, 8, 8

Robert William Service

Robert William Service was a poet and writer sometimes referred to as the Bard of the Yukon He is best-known for his writings on the Canadian North including the poems The Shooting of Dan McGrew The Law of the Yukon and The Cremation of Sam McGee His writing was so expressive that his readers took him for a hard-bitten old Klondike prospector not the later-arriving bank clerk he actually was Robert William Service was born 16 January 1874 in Preston England but also lived in Scotland before emigrating to Canada in 1894 Service went to the Yukon Territory in 1904 as a bank clerk and became famous for his poems about this region which are mostly in his first two books of poetry He wrote quite a bit of prose as well and worked as a reporter for some time but those writings are not nearly as well known as his poems He travelled around the world quite a bit and narrowly escaped from France at the beginning of the Second World War during which time he lived in Hollywood California He died 11 September 1958 in France Incidentally he played himself in a movie called The Spoilers starring John Wayne and Marlene Dietrich more…

All Robert William Service poems | Robert William Service Books

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