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The men that don’t fit in

There's a race of men that don’t fit in,
A race that can't stay still,
So they break the hearts of kith and kin,
And they roam the world at will.
They range the field and they rove the flood,
And they climb the mountain's crest;
Theirs is the curse of the gipsy blood,
And they don't know how to rest.

If they just went straight they might go far;
They are strong and brave and true;
But they're always tired of the things that are,
And they crave the strange and new.
They say, "Could I find my proper groove, what a deep mark I would make!"
So they chop and change, and each fresh move
Is only a fresh mistake.

And each forgets, as he strips and runs,
With a brilliant, fitful pace,
It's the steady, quiet plodding ones
Who win in the life long race.
And each forgets that his youth has fled,
Forgets that his prime is past,
Till he stands one day with a hope that's dead,
In the glare of the truth at last.

He has failed, he has failed; he has missed his chance;
He has just done things by half.
Life’s been a jolly good joke on him,
And now is the time to laugh, Ha ha!
He is one of the legion lost;
He was never meant to win;
He's a rolling stone, and it's bred in the bone;
He's a man who won't fit in.

 

Robert William Service was born in Preston, Lancashire, England of Scottish parents. He spent his childhood in Scotland and attended the University of Glasgow. His vagabond career took him throughout the world, with a diversity of jobs from cook to clerk, from hobo to correspondent.

ROBERT W. SERVICE