The Spell of the Yukon

The Spell of the Yukon
by Robert W. Service
(abridged version)

I wanted the gold, and I sought it;
I scrabbled and mucked like a slave.
Was it famine or scurvy-I fought it;
I hurled my youth into a grave.
I wanted the gold, and I got it-
Came out with a fortune last fall-
Yet somehow life's not what I thought it,
And somehow the gold isn't all.

Nol There's the land. (Have you seen it?)
It's the cussedest land that I know,
From the big, dizzy mountains that screen it
To the deep, deathlike valleys below.
Some say God was tired when He made it,
Some say it's a fine land to shun;
Maybe; but there's some as would trade it
For no land on earth-and I'm one.

There's a land where the mountains are nameless,
And the rivers all run God knows where;
There are lives that are erring and aimless,
And deaths that just hang by a hair;
There are hardships that nobody reckons;
There are valleys unpeopled and still,
There's a land-oh, it beckons and beckons,
And I want to go back-and I will.

There's gold, and it's haunting and haunting;
It's luring me on as of old;
Yet it isn't the gold that I'm wanting
So much as just finding the gold.
It's the great, big, broad land 'way up yonder,
It's the forests where silence has lease;
It's the beauty that thrills me with wonder,
It's the stillness that fills me with peace.

I've been asked from time-to-time by passengers if I know any Robert Service. So I learned these verses from this poem. The whole thing is too long for me. But these verses resonate with me, so I learned them. Now I am trying to re-learn them for this year.

Peggie suggested that I share some of the fascinating gold rush info from time to time. So I will.