Ballads of a Cheechako

by Robert W. Service

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Hesperides Press are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Adventure

64 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

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

[Moonkiszt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Robert Service sought adventure throughout his life, and found the Alaskan gold rush as one of his most favorite subjects, returning to it time after time.

This, like sourdough bread, will have an audience certain and welcoming. There will be naysayers as well, as is true with all poetry. I found this little book charming, and in some cases the ballads thrilled me with unexpected drama, and in some I was very moved.

A Merriam-Webster look-up answers that "but what is" question: A cheechako is a tenderfoot, a greenhorn, and was first used in 1897 - used chiefly in Alaska and comes from Chinook jargon. I read all formats, but this was a hardback book, from 1909 with all the requisite textures, smells and tangibilities: the moment I opened that book I was reading it out loud, as that is what it seemed to demand from me and how I got the most out of it. It was awesome. Reminded me of an elementary school teacher who loved choral readings and for who we did them every week, right along with our music time.

This is writing of its day and time. Class, culture and gender expectations that we, today, are working to re-sort show here and were published in their un-sortedness.

Service opens with To The Man of The High North (who is the assumed reader - so already I thought I was getting away with something) and ends with these last two stanzas:

The nameless men who nameless rivers travel,
And in strange valleys greet strange deaths alone;
The grim, intrepid ones who would unravel
The mysteries that shroud the Polar Zone.

These will I sing, and if one of you linger
Over my pages in the Long, Long Night,
And on some lone line lay a calloused finger,
Saying: "It's human-true -- it hits me right;"
Then will I count this loving toil well spent;
Then will I dream awhile -- content, content.

He had me from that moment. . .so I hope he is content, content wherever he is. . .

There are 21 poems, ballads and metered tales. . . I most enjoyed "My Friends," but truly enjoyed each of them for the wisdom, humor and observations Service took the time to share. I've never been and will never go to the Chilkoot Pass, but I have a good idea of its pull and its dangers. I love words, and it will help any reader to have a dictionary handy in some form as they go through his ballads. And this isn't tame stuff. . .there is murder and mayhem, morals are sacrificed, lives are saved and lost, loves are realized and destroyed. You know, all the usual stuff that holds the attention of a human.

4 stars, dancing in an aurora borealis

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

If Service had written only the imperishable "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" and "The Cremation of Sam McGee," it would have been plenty. Most of his other Yukon poems are a little unimpressive once you've read those two. Bizarre to realize that he wound up spending years in Paris and Nice, played himself in a movie with Marlene Dietrich and John Wayne and was living in Monaco when he died in 1958.

[Sasha Wolf · Rating 4 out of 5]

I randomly came upon these poems one night and found I couldn't stop reading. They're very reminiscent of Kipling, written in a highly rhythmic and vigorous style. They are intentionally popular literature rather than great poetry, but there's a lot of craft in them, and they bring their period vividly to life. That period was one of imperialism and colonisation, and the poems do also reflect this at times.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Mountains your throne, and a river your car;
Crash of a bill moose to rouse you from dreaming;
Forest your couch, and your candle a star”

[Peter Pactor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even though I have read this collection before, I bought the 1909 edition and decided to reread it. I still enjoyed it. The ballads are all stories of character types that could be found in the frozen north during the Yukon gold rush. Stories can be—and often are— written in prose; however, the rhythm of poetry, the structure of the lines, the sounds of the words all whack together to give the story a power that prose often lacks. Robert Service is a master poet. The reader should read the poems aloud to feel the effect.

[Tyler Armendariz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh, this one wasn’t super memorable. Still good, but not as good as his other stuff