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ROBERT W. SERVICE
As the maxim goes: quitters never win, and winners never quit. Robert W. Service (1874–1958), the popular poet and writer, noted how easy it is to quit and give up, but the real men and the real winners press on even when there is no hope in sight. Nicknamed the “Bard of the Yukon,” Service’s writings were so emphatic that his readers often took him for a gruff, old prospector and not the bank clerk he actually was at the time. Following are the last two stanzas of one of his most famous poems “The Quitter.”
“You’re sick of the game!” Well, now, that’s a shame.
You’re young and you’re brave and you’re bright.
“You’ve had a raw deal!” I know—but don’t squeal,
Buck up, do your damnedest, and fight.
It’s the plugging away that will win you the day,
So don’t be a piker, old pard!
Just draw on your grit; it’s so easy to quit:
It’s the keeping-your-chin-up that’s hard.
It’s easy to cry that you’re beaten—and die;
It’s easy to crawfish and crawl;
But to fight and to fight when hope’s out of sight—
Why, that’s the best game of them all!
And though you come out of each grueling bout,
All broken and beaten and scarred,
Just have one more try—it’s dead easy to die,
It’s the keeping-on-living that’s hard.