Lace Up Your Mukluks,
Draw Tight Your Fur Ruff,
Prepare for Adventure!
The Rhymes of Robert Service are at the TOP of my list of favorite and fun literary masterpieces. Kids of all ages will love these arctic tales. A warning to teachers and librarians: Robert Service is a classic writer your students will devour!
To get a taste of Service, go to National Public Radio (NPR) to listen to the 2006 recording of Johnny Cash reciting "The Cremation of Sam McGee." This is one of my all-time favorite poems that I often recited to my dogs as we mushed down the Iditarod Trail. NPR also features another story about an illustrated version of the poem for children here, with a recitation by Scott Simon and Daniel Pinkwater.
WHO IS ROBERT SERVICE???
From the "Collected Poems of Robert Service" published by G.P. Putnam's Sons and first copyrighted in 1907:
Robert Service was born in England in 1874. After spending his childhood in Scotland he came to Canada and there commenced the life of wandering and adventure which has given birth to songs, rhymes, ballads, and poems that have spread over the whole world.
His vagabond career, bounded by Alaska and Turkey, by England and Mexico, has been such a diversity of odd jobs in so many places an actual chronicle of it is well nigh impossible.
Mr. Service, who escaped to America from the German invasion of France, later returned to that country where he spent the remainder of his days.
And from the wonderful and informative website, www.robertwservice.com:
The following obituary appeared in the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph of Sept. 16, 1958: A GREAT POET died last week in Lancieux, France, at the age of 84.
He was not a poet's poet. Fancy-Dan dilettantes will dispute the description "great." He was a people's poet. To the people he was great. They understood him, and knew that any verse carrying the by-line of Robert W. Service would be a lilting thing, clear, clean and power-packed, beating out a story with a dramatic intensity that made the nerves tingle. And he was no poor, garret-type poet, either. His stuff made money hand over fist. One piece alone, The Shooting of Dan McGrew, rolled up half a million dollars for him. He lived it up well and also gave a great deal to help others.
"The only society I like," he once said, "is that which is rough and tough - and the tougher the better. That's where you get down to bedrock and meet human people." He found that kind of society in the Yukon gold rush, and he immortalized it.
MORE GREAT ROBERT SERVICE LINKS:
- http://www.electricscotland.com/poetry/robert_service.htm
- http://www.cowboypoetry.com/robertservice.htm#crem
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The Call of the Wild
