The Cremation of Sam McGee
Service wrote “The Cremation of Sam McGee”
while working as a bank teller in the Yukon Terri-
tory several years after the gold rush of 1898. In
addition to his writing, Service entertained by recit-
ing the works of Rudyard Kipling, Ernest Lawrence
Thayer (“Casey at the Bat”), as well as his own
rhymes and ballads. He refused to call his writing
“poetry” for fear people would think his pieces
were too intellectual and they would not buy his
books.
Along with “The Shooting of Dan McGrew”
and other poems for the book Songs of a Sour-
dough,“The Cremation of Sam McGee” exhibits
the elements that mark Service’s style: internal
rhymes, stressed rhythms, a dash of stereotypical
Yukon machismo(“manliness”), ironic and slightly
macabre humor, and a smattering of Klondike slang
and jargon.
The poem tells a story of Cap (the speaker of
the poem) and his mushing companion, Sam
McGee. On a bitter cold Christmas Day, Sam ex-
acts a promise from Cap: to cremate his remains
when he dies. Cap finds Sam dead by nightfall the
next day. Wanting to honor his friend’s final re-
quest, Cap hauls the frozen body of Sam McGee
across the frozen land. When they arrive at the
shores of Lake LaBarge, Cap spies an abandoned
ship jammed in the ice. After making his way to
the ship, Cap uses planks and coal remnants to build
a fire in the ship’s boiler. Into this blaze Cap stuffs
the body of Sam McGee. When Cap returns later
to the ship, he opens the furnace door to find Sam
Robert W. Service
1907
Volume 10 73