Poetry for Students Vol. 10

Volume 10 77

(“rave[s] all day”). By nightfall, Sam is a frozen
corpse.

The stunning visual beauty of the night sky
(“the stars o’erhead were dancing heel and toe”)
might be overlooked in these stanzas is. The word
“dancing” should stand out as providing an under-
current of joy and happiness to contrast with the
bitter cold and the strangeness of Sam’s last re-
quest. It might offer an explanation of the spell of
the land that holds men like Sam. Also, the danc-
ing stars echo the Northern Lights of the opening
stanza and foreshadow the flames of Sam’s “cre-
matorium.”

Stanzas 7-9:

These stanzas detail the speaker’s trials and
tribulations with the frozen body of Sam McGee.
Cap has lashed the frozen corpse to the sled as he
continues on his journey across the frozen land.
There is little description of the landscape, the
weather, or anything else in this section unless it
refers to the frozen body of Sam McGee. It appears
that Cap makes the travels alone, with no other
companions than the dogs. The speaker appears to
be driven to the brink of madness. He is described
as “horror-driven” in stanza 7; he curses “that load”
in stanza 8; he talks of the “quiet clay” growing
“heavy and heavier,” and that he “felt half mad.”
He even refers to the corpse as a “hateful thing” at
the end of stanza 9.

The mood of these stanzas is bleak. Long
nights, lone firelight, and dogs howling indicate the
gloom. The frozen corpse of Sam McGee “talks”
to Cap and listens (“harkens”) when he sings to it.
Additional elements, no breath in the land of death,
tired dogs howling their woes, a low food supply,
a bad trail, and the near-madness of Cap coupled
with the grin of the frozen corpse all contribute to
a dark picture of despair and misery.

Stanzas 10-11:

Cap’s arrival at the shores of Lake Lebarge sig-
nals a shift in mood and action. This section begins
by suggesting the oppressive bleakness of the pre-
vious nine stanzas will continue. But, the use of the
verb “stuffed” in the last line of stanza 11 and the
frenetic action of tearing out planks and lighting a
fire begin the transition from the somber to the
comic. The overplayed sudden cry of “Here ... is
my cre-ma-tor-eum” lightens the mood. When Cap
stuffs Sam into the fire, the questioning of whether
the poet’s motives are comic or tragic begins.

Stanzas 12-13:

Before the poem’s climax, Service takes a brief

pause, a two-stanza caesura. The activities of stanza

12 echo the despair of stanzas 6,7 and 8, with

scowling heavens, howling winds, and icy cold.

The dancing stars, however, replace the death im-

ages with one of delight and amusement, cleverly

anticipating the poem’s unforgettable ending.

Stanza 14:

The unexpected sight of Sam McGee sitting in

the middle of the fire presents a far more comic im-

age than the scriptural portrayal of Shadrach, Me-

shach, and Abednego who come out of the furnance

unscathed in the Book of Daniel. The smile that

Sam wears is far warmer (pun intended) than the

grin his frozen corpse displayed back in stanza 9.

The admonition to close the door or the cold will

get in contrasts with Sam’s earlier situation where

he whimpered and slept beneath the snow. Sam’s

earlier insistence for cremation is also transformed

from a morbid request to a signal that nothing un-

toward will happen. The twist of the final line of

stanza 14 elicits a nod of admiration to Service for

evoking humor from a man “freezing to death.”

Stanzas 15:

The cold and frightening images of the open-

ing stanza have been completely transformed even

though the words are repeated in the conclusion.

The unnerving images of Lake Lebarge, and the se-

cret tales of the Arctic have lost their power to chill.

The bleak descriptions of death are replaced by the

image of Sam McGee sitting in the middle of the

fire, telling Cap to shut the door so as not to let in

the cold.

Themes.

Nature, and Survival in the Wilderness

The first nine stanzas of “The Cremation of

Sam McGee” discuss at length the problem of sur-

vival in the Arctic wilderness. The deathly cold is

but one element. Long distances between pockets

of civilization and extreme loneliness also factor

into how one survives in this environment. The

mood of the first half of the poem points to failure,

rather than success, in this particular endeavor. Sam

is frozen solid, and Cap, the speaker, appears to be

fighting a descent into madness. The arrival at the

shores of Lake Lebarge, the building of the fire,

and the poem’s final twist do not detract from the

The Cremation of Sam McGee