Thus, he requests to be cremated. Edward Hirsch, for example, reads the Yukon ballads as a closed structure opposing Dionysian and Apollonian (body and mind) elements in human behavior. Narrative . By 1910 most of the population had left for Alaska and other regions. Provides an overview of Service’s work and leads to other critical sources. However, the date of retrieval is often important. Ignoring the eight-line opening, the poem follows a regular pattern of four-line stanzas composed of two rhyming couplets. It was icy cold, but the hot sweat rolled down my cheeks, and I don't know why; And the greasy smoke in an inky cloak went streaking down the sky. The opening and closing lines follow the same metric… English. There is no specific mention, but the reader could assume at least one of the dogs would share the snow cave with Cap, their bodies providing the heat. What lines support this? In these stanzas, Sam tells the speaker (“Cap”) about his fear of being buried in an icy grave and makes Cap promise to cremate his corpse when he dies. The poem was published in his book, Songs of a Sourdough in 1907. I'm sorry, I don't know what the rhythm is. Service prepares the reader for Sam’s demise. Ballad. Service’s verse (he did not call his ballads “poems”) is in the style and tradition of oral folk lore. It has a plot, characters, and a setting, BUT it also has rhythm and repetition (which makes it poetic). ". It is clear from Cap’s thoughts that loyalty is what compels him to honor Sam’s wish to be cremated. “The Cremation of Sam McGee” presents an interesting look into the life of prospectors. Why he left his home in the South to roam 'round the Pole, God only knows. INTRODUCTION By using words like strange, midnight, and secret, and phrases like “make your blood run cold,” “queer sights,” and “the queerest I ever did see,” the reader anticipates that something unnerving will occur. He has written numerous essays for the Gale Group. The Cremation of Sam McGee. Denied admission to the armed forces because of varicose veins, Service assumed the role of war correspondent for the Toronto Star. It contains a surprise ending. Kellner, Bruce, “Robert Service; Overview” in Reference Guide to English Literature, edited by D.L. Themes ‘The Cremation of Sam McGee’, one of the famous poems of Robert Service, was published in 1907 in “Songs of a Sourdough”. Start studying The Cremation of Sam McGee. There, the cold is brought in as a contrast to the hot sweat Cap is experiencing, an emotional and physical reaction to having built the “cre-ma-tor-uem” and putting the body of his friend in it. Service had gone into a bank where he worked during the day looking for a quiet place to write. Despite this Praised in 1921 for their spontaneity and liveliness, Service’s rhymes have most often been lauded for their energy but criticized for their lack of “true” emotion. While Arthur Phelps recoiled from the “grotesque gruesomeness” of “The Cremation of Sam McGee,” he also claimed that the poem was, “At the word “sizzle,” in stanza 12, the thaw of the poem begins.”. The Cremation of Sam McGee deserves to be the best poem in the world. The overplayed sudden cry of “Here … is my cre-ma-tor-eum” lightens the mood. Sam McGee was a real person, a customer at the Bank of Commerce where Service worked. Because each style has its own formatting nuances that evolve over time and not all information is available for every reference entry or article, Encyclopedia.com cannot guarantee each citation it generates. Service resigned from the bank at the end of March, 1896, to emigrate to North America. Why do you think people in the Arctic, like the man in this poem, travel by dog sled as pictured here? And the dogs were fed, and the stars o'erhead were dancing heel and toe. POEM TEXT (A) Why he left his home in the South to roam 'round the Pole, God only knows. Sources. When Cap stuffs Sam into the fire, the questioning of whether the poet’s motives are comic or tragic begins. And that very night, as we lay packed tight in our robes beneath the snow. Canada, Alaska, North Pole, ... the land of gold seemed to hold him like a spell" What two types of figurative language? In addition to his writing, Service entertained by reciting the works of Rudyard Kipling, Ernest Lawrence Thayer (“Casey at the Bat”), as well as his own rhymes and ballads. Sam seems depressed, moans, looks “ghastly pale,” and becomes incoherent (“rave[s] all day”). That’s where you get down to bedrock and meet human people.” Those kinds of images, experiences and people fill much of his poetic output.
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