The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Spell of the Yukon, by Robert Service

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Title: The Spell of the Yukon

Author: Robert Service

Posting Date: July 11, 2008 [EBook #207]
Release Date: January, 1995

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SPELL OF THE YUKON ***

Produced by A. Light, and G.L. Warner

THE SPELL OF THE YUKON AND OTHER VERSES

by Robert W. Service

[British-born Canadian Poet -- 1874-1958.]

[This text was also published (in Britain) under the title,
"Songs of a Sourdough".]

[This etext was pretty much matches the American editions
of 1907 and 1916.]

[Note on text: Italicized stanzas will be indented 5 spaces.
Italicized AND indented stanzas will be indented 10 spaces.
Italicized words or phrases will be capitalized. Lines longer
than 77 characters have been broken according to metre,
and the continuation is indented two spaces.]

To C. M.

The Land God Forgot

The lonely sunsets flare forlorn
Down valleys dreadly desolate;
The lordly mountains soar in scorn
As still as death, as stern as fate.

_The lonely sunsets flame and die;
The giant valleys gulp the night;
The monster mountains scrape the sky,
Where eager stars are diamond-bright._

So gaunt against the gibbous moon,
Piercing the silence velvet-piled,
A lone wolf howls his ancient rune --
The fell arch-spirit of the Wild.

_O outcast land! O leper land!
Let the lone wolf-cry all express
The hate insensate of thy hand,
Thy heart's abysmal loneliness._

Contents with First Lines:

The Land God Forgot
The lonely sunsets flare forlorn,

The Spell of the Yukon
I wanted the gold, and I sought it,

The Heart of the Sourdough
There where the mighty mountains bare their fangs unto the moon,

The Three Voices
The waves have a story to tell me,

The Law of the Yukon
This is the law of the Yukon, and ever she makes it plain,

The Parson's Son
This is the song of the parson's son, as he squats in his