Anyone looking to read Alaska-themed literature had better start with the poetry of Robert W. Service.

Seriously people, if you have somehow made it through life loving Alaska, but neglecting the works of Robert Service, well, let’s just say I’m about to earn some gratitude if you take my advice.  Some might object that Service’s “Yukon” themed poems are not Alaskan, but rather Canadian.  While technically true, that viewpoint completely misses the reality that the history of Alaska and Canada’s Yukon Territory are intertwined.  The route to the Klondike gold rush passed through Alaska into Canada and when the Klondike waned many prospectors crossed back into Alaska chasing other gold fields. Technically, it’s only a line on a map that divides the two regions. 

The poems of Robert Service are readable.  More than readable, they are relatable, “human-true.”  No academic qualifications needed.  Just don’t confuse him with another guy of the same name who writes about Russian history.

In his own words Service writes of and for…

“The nameless men who nameless rivers travel,

And in strange valleys greet strange deaths alone;

The grim, intrepid ones who would unravel

The mysteries that shroud the Polar Zone.”

Whether it’s, “the freshness, the freedom, the farness,” or “the silence that bludgeons you dumb,” Service captures everything about the arctic that is, “wild and weird and wan.”  He also tells tales (tall and otherwise) of those who prospected the Yukon and Alaskan wilderness; those men and women who, “suffered, starved and triumphed, groveled down, yet grasped at glory.”  His famous ballad, “The Cremation of Sam McGee,” has regaled countless English classrooms, yet many of his other poems and ballads are just as gut-gripping including “The Ballad of Blasphemous Bill,” “The Ballad of the Northern Lights,”  “The Men who Don’t Fit In,” and “The Shooting of Dan McGrew.”

Service wrote prolifically throughout his life, but his first two collections of poems were inspired by, “the cussedest land that I know.” He lived in the Yukon territory during the rough and riotous early 1900’s, particularly in the wake of the Klondike Gold Rush that had just surged through from 1897 to 1899.  The Spell of the Yukon and other Verses was published in 1907 and Ballads of a Cheekako in 1909.  Both are in the public domain and can be found through various ebook outlets or for reasonable prices as used paperbacks.  There are various compilations of his poetry published at later dates, but choosing the best of those will depend on what the reader is hoping to gain.

The primary go-to no frills compilation of nearly half of Service’s works is the Collected Poems of Robert Service that has seen multiple printings over the years. This popular version showcases the breadth of Service’s writing, from his early Yukon writings, to his later Rhymes of a Red Cross Man (inspired by his service in WWI) and Ballads of a Bohemian (written during his time in France after WWI). No footnotes, no forwards, no commentaries, or anything else by anyone else come between the reader and unfettered enjoyment of Service’s works.

For the devoted fan of all things Alaskan, The Best of Robert Service: Illustrated Edition earns a space on the coffee table with gold-rush era photos and a polished layout.  This book focuses primarily on his most popular Yukon themed poems and ballads.  It’s just right for reading aloud in front of a flaming fireplace on a frosty winter night, or while swinging in a sun-dappled hammock drinking sweet tea and imagining the “strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.”

By far, the hardest part of sharing nuggets of Service’s poetry, all the while hoping to drive people to the original paystreak, is coming to a stop.

“Thank God! there is always a Land of Beyond

For us who are true to the trail;

A vision to seek, a beckoning peak,

A fairness that never will fail.”