Yellow – A Short, Powerful Tale of Betrayal

The Story Behind Yellow

Robert Service had a gift for capturing moods and emotions in unexpected ways. Yellow is a perfect example—it’s a poem that feels different from his Yukon ballads, more abstract, more introspective, but still just as powerful.

Service wasn’t just writing about gold rushes and adventure; he was also exploring human nature, memory, and the way color itself can hold meaning. In Yellow, he takes a single color and turns it into something vivid, something layered with feeling.

What does yellow mean? It can be warmth, nostalgia, light, and joy—but it can also hint at fading, age, or even cowardice. Like so much of Service’s poetry, this piece isn’t just about one thing—it’s about what the words make you feel.

Yellow

By Robert W. Service

One pearly day in early May I walked upon the sand
And saw, say half a mile away, a man with gun in hand.
A dog was cowering to his will, as slow he sought to creep
Upon a dozen ducks so still they seemed to be asleep.

A gun shot rang! Oh, envied ease! The flock flew fluttering fast.
The dog, with jubilant release, went racing to the blast.
Then lo! the ducks came back again, with keen, tempestuous flight.
The shooter shrank down in the grain: he cowered in affright.

His dream was shattered, and his face was stricken with despair;
He hunched upon that grassy place and tugged his tangled hair.
And then he wept with joy and fright: he did not fire again.
The thing that seemed so tame to sight was happy, wild, and sane.

So, you who sit so sweet and still and patient by my side,
Beware! If once I break the thrill that makes you wholly mine,
I may not take you back again. Oh, I may see you rise,
And though you run to my refrain, I may not win your eyes.