© ImageState
© SuperStock, Inc.
April 11, 2006
I am not much into poetry. I “don’t get it” most of the time. In fact, even the “poetry” of the Psalms is hard for me sometimes. I tend to be a very concrete thinker – say what you mean, mean what you say. Therefore, poetry is usually beyond me.
But I really like the poetry of Robert Service (I think he wrote it for simple minds like mine!). I discovered it while I was living in Alaska, not surprising really, since so much of his poetry that people know is about the Yukon and Alaska. It’s fun to read or listen to The Shooting of Dan McGrew and The Cremation of Sam McGee. Some of his poems are very sad, like The Harpy and Death in the Arctic. But my favorite of all is The Spell of the Yukon. I won’t quote it all here, but only copy my favorite verse – the last one.
There’s gold, and it’s haunting and haunting;
It’s luring me on as of old;
Yet it isn’t the gold that I’m wanting
So much as just finding the gold.
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.
***********************************************************************
From: Dan McGrew, Sam McGee, The Poems of Robert Service
Copyright 1987 by The Stonesong Press, Inc. page 52
Available on the web at:
(follow link to poem on right side of page) or
http://www.robertwservice.com/modules/library/article.php?articleid=16
No comments:
Post a Comment