Volume 10 83
fire burns up Sam’s remains. In the first and last
stanzas, Service uses two words that now seem odd,
“marge” and “moil,” that these words were com-
monly used at the beginning of the century but have
since fallen out of use. They mean margin and toil,
respectively.
When they arrive at “the marge of Lake
Lebarge” the narrator finds an old, derelict steam
boat, an image of death and ruin. He is pleased to
see it and determines to use its furnace as the cre-
matorium. Out on the derelict (dead) boat he builds
a fire into which he puts Sam. When he can no
longer refrain from avoiding the fire and is curious
about how the cremation is progressing, he opens
the door and sees Sam sitting up. Sam says, “Please
close that door ... it’s the first time I’ve been warm.”
Out of cold and death now rise warmth and life!
On August 17, 1975, the Canadian Postal Ser-
vice paid tribute to Robert Service with an eight
cent stamp. The stamp depicts Sam McGee grin-
ning out from an open fire on Lake Lebarge in the
Yukon.
Source:Carl Mowery, in an essay for Poetry for Students,
Gale, 2001.
Sources
Kellner, Bruce, “Robert Service; Overview” in Reference
Guide to English Literature, 2nd ed.,edited by D. L. Kirk-
patrick, St. James Press, 1991.
Klinck, Carl F. and New, W. H., “Robert W(illiam) Ser-
vice,” in Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 92:
Canadian Writers, 1890-1920.A Bruccoli Clark Layman
Book. Edited by W. H. New, University of British Colum-
bia. The Gale Group, 1990, pp. 342-348.
The Original Homepage of Robert W. Service,www.ude.
net/service/service.html (March 20, 2000).For Further Study
Mossman, Tam, The Best of Robert Service,ed., Running
Press, 1990.
An interesting collection of Robert Service poems,
including “The Cremation of Sam McGee,” “The
Shooting of Dan McGrew,” and others. Vintage pho-
tographs from the Klondike days add a sense of re-
alism. There is also a helpful glossary of the more
exotic words and phrases Service uses in his poems.
Kellner, Bruce, “Robert Service; Overview” in Reference
Guide to English Literature,edited by D.L. Kirkpatrick, St.
James Press, 1991.
Provides an overview of Service’s work and leads to
other critical sources.
Review of The Spell of the Yukon and other Verses, The Se-
wanee Review 1. Vol. XVII, No. 3, July, 1909, pp. 381-82.
An unnamed critic discusses Service’s style, stating
that, although it shows considerable skill and vital-
ity, the poetry deals “too rawly” with the harsh real-
ities of life in the Yukon.The Cremation of Sam McGee