StoryTitle("caps", "The Cremation of Sam Mcgee") ?>
by Robert Service
PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "There are strange things done in the midnight sun", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "By the men who moil for gold;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The Arctic trails have their secret tales", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "That would make your blood run cold;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But the queerest they ever did see", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I cremated Sam McGee.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Now Sam McGee was from Tennessee, where the cotton blooms and blows.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Why he left his home in the South to roam 'round the Pole, God only knows.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He was always cold, but the land of gold seemed to hold him like a spell;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Though he'd often say in his homely way that \"he'd sooner live in hell.\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "On a Christmas Day we were mushing our way over the Dawson trail.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Talk of your cold! through the parka's fold it stabbed like a driven nail.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "If our eyes we'd close, then the lashes froze till sometimes we couldn't see;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "It wasn't much fun, but the only one to whimper was Sam McGee.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And that very night, as we lay packed tight in our robes beneath the snow,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the dogs were fed, and the stars o'erhead were dancing heel and toe,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He turned to me, and \"Cap,\" says he, \"I'll cash in this trip, I guess;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And if I do, I'm asking that you won't refuse my last request.\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Well, he seemed so low that I couldn't say no; then he says with a sort of moan:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"It's the cursèd cold, and it's got right hold, till I'm chilled clean through to the bone.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Yet 'tain't being dead—it's my awful dread of the icy grave that pains;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "So I want you to swear that, foul or fair, you'll cremate my last remains.\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "A pal's last need is a thing to heed, so I swore I would not fail;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And we started on at the streak of dawn; but God! he looked ghastly pale.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He crouched on the sleigh, and he raved all day of his home in Tennessee;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And before nightfall a corpse was all that was left of Sam McGee.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "There wasn't a breath in that land of death, and I hurried, horror-driven,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "With a corpse half hid that I couldn't get rid, because of a promise given;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "It was lashed to the sleigh, and it seemed to say: \"You may tax your brawn and brains,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But you promised true, and it's up to you, to cremate those last remains.\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Now a promise made is a debt unpaid, and the trail has its own stern code.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "In the days to come, though my lips were dumb, in my heart how I cursed that load.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "In the long, long night, by the lone firelight, while the huskies, round in a ring,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Howled out their woes to the homeless snows—Oh God! how I loathed the thing.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And every day that quiet clay seemed to heavy and heavier grow;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And on I went, though the dogs were spent and the grub was getting low;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The trail was bad, and I felt half mad, but I swore I would not give in;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And I'd often sing to the hateful thing, and it hearkened with a grin.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Till I came to the marge of Lake Lebarge, and a derelict there lay;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "It was jammed in the ice, but I saw in a trice it was called the \"Alice May.\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And I looked at it, and I thought a bit, and I looked at my frozen chum;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Then \"Here,\" said I, with a sudden cry, \"is my cre-ma-tor-eum.\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Some planks I tore from the cabin floor, and I lit the boiler fire;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Some coal I found that was lying around, and I heaped the fuel higher;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The flames just soared, and the furnace roared—such a blaze you seldom see;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And I burrowed a hole in the glowing coal, and I stuffed in Sam McGee.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Then I made a hike, for I didn't like to hear him sizzle so;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the heavens scowled, and the huskies howled, and the wind began to blow.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "It was icy cold, but the hot sweat rolled down my cheeks, and I don't know why;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the greasy smoke in an inky cloak went streaking down the sky.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I do not know how long in the snow I wrestled with grisly fear;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But the stars came out and they danced about ere again I ventured near;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I was sick with dread, but I bravely said: \"I'll just take a peep inside.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I guess he's cooked, and it's time I looked\"; . . . then the door I opened wide.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And there sat Sam, looking cool and calm, in the heart of the furnace roar;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And he wore a smile you could see a mile, and said: \"Please close that door.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "It's fine in here, but I greatly fear, you'll let in the cold and storm—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Since I left Plumtree, down in Tennessee, it's the first time I've been warm.\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "There are strange things done in the midnight sun", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "By the men who moil for gold;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The Arctic trails have their secret tales", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "That would make your blood run cold;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But the queerest they ever did see", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I cremated Sam McGee.", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>