The Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses

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Title: The Spell of the Yukon

Author: Robert Service

Release Date: July 11, 2008 [EBook #207]

Last Updated: January 15, 2013

Language: English

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SPELL OF THE YUKON ***

Produced by A. Light, G.L. Warner, and David Widger

THE SPELL OF THE YUKON AND OTHER VERSES

by Robert W. Service

[British-born Canadian Poet — 1874-1958.]

[This text was also published (in Britain) under the title, Songs of a Sourdough.]

[This etext pretty much matches the American editions of 1907 and 1916.]

To C. M.

CONTENTS

The Land God Forgot

The Spell of the Yukon

The Heart of the Sourdough

The Three Voices

The Law of the Yukon

The Parson's Son

The Call of the Wild

The Lone Trail

The Pines

The Lure of Little Voices

The Song of the Wage-Slave

Grin

The Shooting of Dan McGrew

The Cremation of Sam McGee

My Madonna

Unforgotten

The Reckoning

Quatrains

The Men That Don't Fit In

Music in the Bush

The Rhyme of the Remittance Man

The Low-Down White

The Little Old Log Cabin

The Younger Son

The March of the Dead

Fighting Mac

The Woman and the Angel

The Rhyme of the Restless Ones

New Year's Eve

Comfort

The Harpy

Premonition

The Tramps

L'Envoi

The Land God Forgot

     The lonely sunsets flare forlorn

      Down valleys dreadly desolate;

     The lordly mountains soar in scorn

      As still as death, as stern as fate.

The lonely sunsets flame and die;

           The giant valleys gulp the night;

          The monster mountains scrape the sky,

           Where eager stars are diamond-bright.

     So gaunt against the gibbous moon,

      Piercing the silence velvet-piled,

     A lone wolf howls his ancient rune —

      The fell arch-spirit of the Wild.

O outcast land!  O leper land!

           Let the lone wolf-cry all express

          The hate insensate of thy hand,

           Thy heart's abysmal loneliness.

Contents with First Lines:

   The Land God Forgot

    The lonely sunsets flare forlorn,

   The Spell of the Yukon

    I wanted the gold, and I sought it,

   The Heart of the Sourdough

    There where the mighty mountains bare their fangs unto the moon,

   The Three Voices

    The waves have a story to tell me,

   The Law of the Yukon

    This is the law of the Yukon, and ever she makes it plain,

   The Parson's Son

    This is the song of the parson's son, as he squats in his shack alone,

   The Call of the Wild

    Have you gazed on naked grandeur where there's nothing else to gaze on,

   The Lone Trail

    Ye who know the Lone Trail fain would follow it,

   The Pines

    We sleep in the sleep of ages, the bleak, barbarian pines,

   The Lure of Little Voices

    There's a cry from out the loneliness — oh, listen, Honey, listen!

   The Song of the Wage-Slave

    When the long, long day is over, and the Big Boss gives me my pay,

   Grin

    If you're up against a bruiser and you're getting knocked about,

   The Shooting of Dan McGrew

    A bunch of the boys were whooping it up in the Malamute saloon,

   The Cremation of Sam McGee

    There are strange things done in the midnight sun,

   My Madonna

    I haled me a woman from the street,

   Unforgotten

    I know a garden where the lilies gleam,

   The Reckoning

    It's fine to have a blow-out in a fancy restaurant,

   Quatrains

    One said:  Thy life is thine to make or mar,

   The Men That Don't Fit In

    There's a race of men that don't fit in,

   Music in the Bush

    O'er the dark pines she sees the silver moon,

   The Rhyme of the Remittance Man

    There's a four-pronged buck a-swinging in the shadow of my cabin,

   The Low-Down White

    This is the pay-day up at the mines, when the bearded brutes come down,

   The Little Old Log Cabin

    When a man gets on his uppers in a hard-pan sort of town,

   The Younger Son

    If you leave the gloom of London and you seek a glowing land,

   The March of the Dead

    The cruel war was over — oh, the triumph was so sweet,

   Fighting Mac

    A pistol shot rings round and round the world,

   The Woman and the Angel

    An angel was tired of heaven, as he lounged in the golden street,

   The Rhyme of the Restless Ones

    We couldn't sit and study for the law,

   New Year's Eve

    It's cruel cold on the water-front, silent and dark and drear,

   Comfort

    Say!  You've struck a heap of trouble,

   The Harpy

    There was a woman, and she was wise; woefully wise was she,

   Premonition

    'Twas a year ago,