Rhymes of a Rolling Stone

by Robert W. Service

Have ever you heard of the Land of Beyond, That dreams at the gates of the day? Alluring it lies at the skirts of the skies, And ever so far away; Alluring it O ye the yoke galls, And ye of the trail overfond, With saddle and pack, by paddle and track, Let's go to the Land of Beyond!

Genres: Poetry, Classics

126 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1912

About the author

This author is the the British-Canadian writer of Yukon poetry. For the British historian of modern Russia, see Robert Service.

Robert William Service was born into a Scottish family while they were living in Preston, England. He was schooled in Scotland, attending Hillhead High School in Glasgow. He moved to Canada at the age of 21 when he gave up his job working in a Glasgow bank, and traveled to Vancouver Island, British Columbia with his Buffalo Bill outfit and dreams of becoming a cowboy.

He drifted around western North America, taking and quitting a series of jobs. Hired by the Canadian Bank of Commerce, he worked in a number of its branches before being posted to the branch in Whitehorse (not Dawson) in the Yukon Territory in 1904, six years after the Klondike Gold Rush. Inspired by the vast beauty of the Yukon wilderness, Service began writing poetry about the things he saw.

Conversations with locals led him to write about things he hadn't seen, many of which hadn't actually happened, as well. He did not set foot in Dawson City until 1908, arriving in the Klondike ten years after the Gold Rush, but his renown as a writer was already established.

For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_W._Service.

Reviews

[Rebeccah · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are maybe 8 or 9 poems in this that I adore. Robert Service at his best beautifully captures the joy of being in the wilderness and the vast untamable majesty of the world, all with perfect internal rhyme, alliteration, and pacing that make them a joy to read. Robert Service at his worst is gimmicky and more than a little racist, with awkward rhyme that just won't flow in in my head. So it is definitely a mixed bag. But the good ones are probably my favourite poems in the world. (Random aside: I discovered Robert Service when I randomly chose him for a poetry assignment in grade 10; I was super pissed that the kid in front of me got Tolkien. Now I think it was fate.)

[Peter Pactor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the 1912 edition. It's Robert Service, a poet whose work I enjoy immensely. Robert Service has a way of capturing people and telling their story with compassion and honesty. There are several poems in this volume, real gems, that I particularly liked and would like to learn. Among those and foremost in my mind is "Ghosts."

If you have read my earlier reviews of his books, you will recall that he is one of my favorite poets. I have been a fan since I was a pre-teen many years ago.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are just fascinating poems about frontier life and about being a lonely man. Can be read over and over.

[THANA]

توقّعته أفضل
وتجاوزت بعض القصائد وأحيانا بعض الأبيات لما فيها من كفريات

أحسن شيء قريته لهذا الشاعر مش موجود في هذا الكتاب،
وهو النصف الأول من قصيدته Courage

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ah, poetry? Doggerel? Who cares; I love them - uplifting, sentimental, life affirming, exuberant. Always loved him, captures the voice and cadences of the far North. Brilliant.

[Sierra · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.8 stars

Favourites:
“The Gramaphone at Fond-Du-Lac” - 4.5 stars

“The Junior God” - 4.25 stars

“Sunshine” - 3.75 stars (some stanzas are very good, but some are just okay)

“The Blind and the Dead” - 4 stars

“The Sceptic” - 4.25 stars (simple but well-realized, I really liked it)

“Death in the Arctic” - 3.75 stars (like “Sunshine,” really like some stanzas while others are just fine; the ending wasn’t my favourite)

“The Trapper’s Christmas Eve” - 4 stars

“The Dreamer” - 4 stars

“I’m Scared of it All” - 4.25 stars

“Heart o’ the North” - 4.5 stars (great short poem)


Others I liked:
“The Idealist”
“The Return”
“To Sunnydale”
“The Lunger”
“The Wonderlust”
“The World’s All Right”
“The Baldness of Chewed-Ear”
“The Ghosts”
“Good-Bye Little Cabin”

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another decent collection of poetry by Service. He may not be seen in literary circles as a fine poet, but these homes are definitely aimed towards the popular reader, which Service refers to in his poems.
I like the following poems:
A rolling Stone
The land of beyond
Sunshine
Cheer
Nostomaniac
Just think!
The lunger
The mountain and the lake
Death in the Arctic
While the bannock bakes
The Mother
The Dreamer
The Squaw Man
I'm scared of it all
The song of the camp-fire
The Ghosts
Good-bye, little cabin

[Sabrina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I listened to the audiobook. Love it.
Never been one for poetry but I love the work of Robert Service.
I think my favourite poem of the collection is The Quitter as it’s just great advice 😀

[Poppy Harrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

very epic thank you robert

[Jessica Thurlow · Rating 3 out of 5]

Robert W. Service's 1912 collection of poems is thoughtful and insightful. A nomadic man, Service spent many years living and interacting with Canada's natural and breathtaking landscapes. Service's poetry touches on many subjects including: what it means to be a nomadic; the importance of religion; aging; scepticism in religion; and an appreciation of nature.

"There's sunshine in the heart of me,

My blood sings in the breeze;

The mountains are a part of me,

I'm fellow to the trees."

Service spends a lot of time trying to describe how he feels about nature; about his country. It is clear from the poems that Service spends so much time on this topic because the subject is so complex that it is hard to describe the feeling in one poem. Nature is full of different perspectives, it has so many dimensions, and is so dynamic that it seems as though Service wanted to keep explaining how he feels just to make sure he covered every possible turn of phrase. The relationship ones has with nature is often such a fundamental and primal experience that words are inadequate to describe it. As Service's narrator explains, touching on this concept, in A Rolling Stone "There lives and leaps in me / A love of the lowly things of earth, / And a passion to be free (17)." For Service's narrator, the most important thing about nature is how free and non-restrictive it is. He references more than once how he often feels akin to a slave when he's forced to live a closed in, urban life.

Religion is also a recurrent theme in Service's poetry. In The Soldier of Fortune the narrator discusses how he has always vacillated about faith and yet now, when his faith is being threatened, the narrator, at point of death, rebels against the idea of someone choosing whether he believes or not and decides to embrace his faith, such as it is. The narrator refuses to let others decide when or if he denies his faith; "and so I think / Humanity itself is glorified. . . . (24)."

"I'm dreaming to-night in the fire-flow, alone in

my study tower,

My books battalioned around me, my Kipling

flat on my knee;

But I'm not in the mood for reading, I haven't

moved for an hour;

Body and brain I'm weary, weary the heart

of me"

Service's poetry is full of playful rhymes and colourful wording. For example in At Thirty-Five Service's narrator tackles the heavy subject of mortality but does so in a light and airy way, making the idea easier to contemplate: "I've mocked at those who prate and preach; / I've laughed with any man alive; / But now with sobered hearth I reach / the Great Divide of Thirty-five (148)." Here the narrator uses a fun rhyme scheme to keep the feel of the poem light while still digging deep in to the subject of aging and mortality. In 1912 the average lifespan of a man was fifty-one years of age, so, turning thirty-five means your life could be more than half over - you have officially reached old age. Thus, making jokes about this even is a definite coping device for someone who is genuinely afraid. This same ploy is used in today's world when we deal with scary things like cancer, global warming and national debt crises. Humour facilitates conversations but doesn't bar self-expression.

I loved Service's poems. Each poem feels light and airy but each one is dense with meaning. I read many of them over and over, aloud, to myself (poetry always sounds better when you read it aloud). I read this collection mostly while at work and let me tell you, Service's humour certainly made those long days at work much easier to meet with a smile!

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rollicking, sentimental poems which sometimes succeed in forging a kind of demotic sensibility of the frontier. Clear echoes of Kipling and Wordsworth abound. Only a few of the poems are unreadably awful, and even they are written with very competent scansion and rhyme.

[Denise Ballentine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This old book was fun to explore. I had never heard of Robert W. Service. Service wrote just for the fun of it and it shows. Written for 1912 sensibilities and attitudes, it would never pass muster today. I liked the discovery.

[Jillian Bogy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I own the 1915 first print edition.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pure brilliance!

[Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was quite an entertaining read. It definitely gave me a lot of laughs.