Customer Reviews

Spell of the Yukon

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Robert Service wrote in the golden years of the Klondike -- of the rough and ready men, and women just as tough. No-one in Robert's world (real or imagined) minced words or had any self-consciousness about them. It was live and let live and sometimes kill or be killed.

Reading his poems transports us back to that frozen place in nature when it was literally every man and every woman for him/herself, yet Robert conveys to us not only a sensitivity (in his poem extolling the simple light switch -- something quite novel in those times, especially in the Klondike), but the beauties he saw in the others -- gathered around the village's first "grammyphone", hearing the voice of "canned man" coming from it -- some savages taking to their canoes because it seems demonic, yet others equally savage, enraptured by this miracle of sound.

Cold cabins, with hoarfrost clinging to the inside rafters -- unwashed masses in itchy long-johns struggling out of bed on an arctic day -- and the beauty of the lilies ("Unforgotten") living side by side with a trapper's two-timing woman getting her just desserts (over "a black fox skin") -- Robert Service touches the heart and soul of the rough and raw Klondike in the early 1900's, and shows us the soul's emotions and colors from inky black to pure gold.

This is a classic. PERIOD! Do yourself a favor and buy this little book so that you can memorize "The Creamation of Sam McGee" if nothing else. You will always have a way to keep small children spellbound with this captivating verse.

This, along with Service's other poems have a magical way of transforming us to the Yukon. You will feel as though you are there!

I don't get poetry. For me, it tends to be hard to decipher and follow. Maybe that's why I tend not to read it. Robert Service is a pleasant surprise, and a "rediscovery" for me. I heard a friend's son try to recite "The Cremation of Sam McGee". His recitation was somewhat lacking in clarity, but the poem sounded "fun". I picked this book up in a bookstore (I bought a second copy from Amazon.com for a gift) and read "My Madonna". I laughed out loud and decided I NEEDED to own the book. Robert Service's images came through loud and clear. I thouroughly enjoyed reading his poems, and while I will admit he kinda beats the reader over the head with some of his images, there is no denying I understood what he was trying to portray. Stark. Forbidding. Unsettling. Chilling. Humerous. Pick the book up read it and find yourself being drawn into another century, and appreciating YOU don't have to live in that time or that place.

I saw a live performance of "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" in a saloon in Fairbanks, Alaska, several decades ago. I had forgotten how entertaining Robert Service could be. Rediscover or discover him, you'll be glad you did.

I found this book to be poorly formatted for reading on the Kindle and do not recommend it to other Kindle owners.

I fondly remember this book, in particular some of his classic poems,from my childhood.
My father, born in 1898, could recite several from memory in the the style of vaudeville or other stage performers (as in English theaters, etc. I am still fond of "The Cremation of Sam McGee" & "The Shooting of Dan McGrew". Of course, the title poem deftly describes the men who searched for gold. The closing couplet is:
"It's the great, big, broad land 'way up yonder,
It's the forests where silence has lease:
It's the beauty that thrills me with wonder,
It's the stillness that fills me with peace."

Robert Service is one of my favorite poets, though his name is not as well known as Robert Frost or Emily Dickinson or T.S. Eliot (my other favorites). His style is unique and the subject matter (of this volume) is literally the Yukon. He writes wonderful narrative poems where an intriguing story emerges without stumbling under the weight of its verse. You've probably seen or heard a few of these poems during your school days: "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" and "The Cremation of Sam McGee." Another great selection -- not often anthologized -- is "The Men That Don't Fit In." These are the kind of poems you can read aloud to your kids and grandkids ... if you can get them to sit still and turn off the TV.