Friday - June 20, 2008
Neat Poem
The previous post mentioned the Klondike Gold Rush, and that reminded me of two of my father’s favorite writers. O. Henry was one, and Robert Service was another. Which shows you that my strange sense of humor is probably genetic.
Service’s most famous bit of doggerel is probably the short epic poem “The Cremation Of Sam McGee”, a macabre and humorous bit of verse about a Klondike prospector trying to bury his dead friend. It has a very Dr. Seuss - like rhythim to it, which makes it fun to read to children.
There are strange things done ‘neath the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold.
The arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold.
The northern lights have seen queer sights
But the queerest they ever did see,
Was that night on the marge of Lake LeBarge
When I cremated Sam McGee.
Now Sam McGee was from Tenessee
Where the cotton blooms and blows.
Why he left his home in the south to roam
‘round the poles, God only knows.
He was always cold, but the land of gold
Seemed to hold him like a spell,
Though he’d often say in his homely way
That he’d sooner live in Hell.
On a Christmas day we were mushing our way
Over the Dawson trail.
Talk of your cold, through the parka’s fold
It stabbed like a driven nail.
If our eyes we’d close, then the lashes froze
‘til sometimes we couldn’t see.
It wasn’t much fun, but the only one
To whimper was Sam McGee.
And that very night while we lay packed tight
In our robes beneath the snow,
And the dogs were fed, and the stars o’er head
Were dancing heel and toe,
He turns to me, and “Cap” says he
“I’ll cash in this trip, I guess.
And if I do, I’m asking that you
Won’t refuse my last request.”
Well, he looked so low that I couldn’t say no,
Then he says with a sort of a moan,
“It’s the cursed cold, it’s got right hold
‘til I’m chilled clean through to the bone.
Yet tain’t being dead, it’s my awful dread
Of an icy grave that pains.
So I want you to swear that foul or fair,
You’ll cremate my last remains.”
Jump over to INGEB and read the rest. It was my dad’s favorite, and always made my brother and I laugh.
Posted by Drew458
on 06/20/2008 at 02:06 PM
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •
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