Customer Reviews

The Cremation of Sam McGee

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Cremation of Sam Magee is definatley Robert Services funniest poems ever, it shows a master genius at work and I shall always remember the words "Strange things are done in the midnight sun by the men who mole for gold" This book is a definate buy!!! I shall keep this book till the day I die

As a kid growing up in Ontario I heard this poem a million times. Now that I have a daughter of my own, I absolutely love sharing it with her. This is Service's masterpiece and it is beautifully accompanied by Ted Harrison's inspired paintings. We enjoy looking at the pictures as much as rolling through the perfectly paced tale of the gold rush. Anthony Yanow

I think just about anyone who has taken a literature class has been ENCOURAGED...[required] to memorize this poem.

And it's a darn good poem; tells a story that sounds, [especially to a younger person, very real].

Robert Service has always been like...the 'other' Jack London. These two authors should be, [if not already], required reading in any English/Literature class taught.

This particular poem was always a good one to have memorized--- in order to recite it around the campfire at a Boy Scout camping trip. Just seeing the title in print brings back fond memories.

Book by Robert Service The Cremation of Sam McGee, I am 70yrs. old, when I was a child my father would read with great expression this story to me and my 6 siblings. I always thought as an adult I should have dad tape his reading. I waited too long and dad died. I read where this was now available with amazing art. I purchased the book and have read it to my grandchildren. They love it. Frequently dad would say"A promise made,is a debt unpaid" I was amazed to find where he got that saying, it was from the Cremation of Sam McGee story

Robert Service wrote of the Yukon and the severity of that area. Check it out, you may just find this a fun story to read and share.

I recently saw this poem used effectively with a sixth grade Social Studies class studying the Yukon Gold Rush. The poem with it's morbid/supernatural theme is intriguing to kids in the middle school years and the colorful yet somewhat archaic and ambiguous language led to a great beginning Socratic Seminar. This type of "picture book" should be used more often with older students and as another reviewer mentioned this poem would make a great extension to a literature unit on narrative poems or as a supplemental reading to a classic novel like Jack London's CALL OF THE WILD. And though I had never heard this poem before someone recently told me it is a classic to tell around the campfire especially when camping in the snow.

Robert Service, if anyone, could be called "the grandfather of cowboy poets." This has been a popular genre over the past few years and much of the work done by these wonderful men and women can be traced back to Service's poems and style. Being called the "Bard of the Yukon" is certainly true, but sells this particular writer short. His works include so much more that just the delightful poems of the Canadian Territory. Simply written, with a story, they are quite a delight for both old and young alike. I recent years, some of our elitist in our academic world have been less than kind to this poet. This is all well and good with me. They simply don't get it. Service's work will quite likely endure far longer than some of the ranting I read in the professional journals. I read these poems to young folks in my classes, and they seldom fail to delight and indeed, inspire. It is difficult to go wrong with this one. Highly recommend.

The illustrations were beartiful. The poem is the northland By Robert is Artic northland
It is what I expected and I am very satisfied.

This be the same book me father read to me as a wee little lad. The pictures are amazing and truly enhance the reading of Robert W. Service's classic poem. I had been in AK this past summer and couldn't get the poem out of my mind so I had to buy it. Love the book. I have been using it as an example with my students as a way that art and poetry can be fused.

I volunteer at a nursing home and this book was requested by one of the residents. We've so enjoyed reading this aloud.

I remember my grandmother reciting The Cremation of Sam McGee to me when I was a child. This wasn't the only poem that she would recite from memory, but it was my favorite ... and I'm sure I wore her out requesting it again and again.

It's been many years since I've even thought of that poem, but lately I had been trying to remember "that poem about the prospector being cremated." I was able to track down the title and was so pleased to find it at Amazon - along with a few other poems of Robert Service that I had not heard.

It made for a wonderful evening reading through those poems and remembering my child's sense of wonder even as I read them with the eyes of an adult who could appreciate the meter and rhyme scheme. I'm very happy to have re-discovered Robert Service's works (and to have had a grandmother who instilled the love of poetry in me).