Songs of a Sourdough

Robert W. Service earned his nickname, the Bard of the Yukon, with this 1907 collection of ballads about the Klondike gold rush and the men it drew north. Two of his best known poems live here, “The Shooting of Dan McGrew” and “The Cremation of Sam McGee,” both told in a rollicking, campfire cadence that carries menace and dark comedy in equal measure. Around them are verses on the loneliness of the trail, the pull of gold fever, and the harsh grandeur of a frozen land that rewards the tough and breaks the rest. Service writes for the ear, and his rhythm still lands. The full collection is available here as a free PDF and EPUB edition.