grade+three+poems

__< back__

 > The Cremation of Sam McGee Click to listen. >  = The Cremation Of Sam Mcgee - Poem by Robert William Service = There are strange things done in the midnight sun

By the men who moil for gold;

The Arctic trails have their secret tales

That would make your blood run cold;

The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,

But the queerest they ever did see

Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge

I cremated Sam McGee.

Now Sam McGee was from Tennessee, where the cotton blooms and blows.

Why he left his home in the South to roam 'round the Pole, God only knows.

He was always cold, but the land of gold seemed to hold him like a spell;

Though he'd often say in his homely way that he'd "sooner live in hell".

On a Christmas Day we were mushing our way over the Dawson trail.

Talk of your cold! through the parka's fold it stabbed like a driven nail.

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">If our eyes we'd close, then the lashes froze till sometimes we couldn't see;

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">It wasn't much fun, but the only one to whimper was Sam McGee.

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">And that very night, as we lay packed tight in our robes beneath the snow,

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">And the dogs were fed, and the stars o'erhead were dancing heel and toe,

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">He turned to me, and "Cap," says he, "I'll cash in this trip, I guess;

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">And if I do, I'm asking that you won't refuse my last request."

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Well, he seemed so low that I couldn't say no; then he says with a sort of moan:

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">"It's the cursed cold, and it's got right hold till I'm chilled clean through to the bone.

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Yet 'tain't being dead -- it's my awful dread of the icy grave that pains;

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">So I want you to swear that, foul or fair, you'll cremate my last remains."

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">A pal's last need is a thing to heed, so I swore I would not fail;

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">And we started on at the streak of dawn; but God! he looked ghastly pale.

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">He crouched on the sleigh, and he raved all day of his home in Tennessee;

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">And before nightfall a corpse was all that was left of Sam McGee.

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">There wasn't a breath in that land of death, and I hurried, horror-driven,

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">With a corpse half hid that I couldn't get rid, because of a promise given;

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">It was lashed to the sleigh, and it seemed to say:

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">"You may tax your brawn and brains,

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">But you promised true, and it's up to you to cremate those last remains."

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Now a promise made is a debt unpaid, and the trail has its own stern code.

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">In the days to come, though my lips were dumb, in my heart how I cursed that load.

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">In the long, long night, by the lone firelight, while the huskies, round in a ring,

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Howled out their woes to the homeless snows -- O God! how I loathed the thing.

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">And every day that quiet clay seemed to heavy and heavier grow;

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">And on I went, though the dogs were spent and the grub was getting low;

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">The trail was bad, and I felt half mad, but I swore I would not give in;

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">And I'd often sing to the hateful thing, and it hearkened with a grin.

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Till I came to the marge of Lake Lebarge, and a derelict there lay;

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">It was jammed in the ice, but I saw in a trice it was called the "Alice May".

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">And I looked at it, and I thought a bit, and I looked at my frozen chum;

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Then "Here," said I, with a sudden cry, "is my cre-ma-tor-eum."

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Some planks I tore from the cabin floor, and I lit the boiler fire;

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Some coal I found that was lying around, and I heaped the fuel higher;

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">The flames just soared, and the furnace roared -- such a blaze you seldom see;

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">And I burrowed a hole in the glowing coal, and I stuffed in Sam McGee.

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Then I made a hike, for I didn't like to hear him sizzle so;

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">And the heavens scowled, and the huskies howled, and the wind began to blow.

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">It was icy cold, but the hot sweat rolled down my cheeks, and I don't know why;

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">And the greasy smoke in an inky cloak went streaking down the sky.

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">I do not know how long in the snow I wrestled with grisly fear;

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">But the stars came out and they danced about ere again I ventured near;

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">I was sick with dread, but I bravely said: "I'll just take a peep inside.

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">I guess he's cooked, and it's time I looked"; . . . then the door I opened wide.

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">And there sat Sam, looking cool and calm, in the heart of the furnace roar;

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">And he wore a smile you could see a mile, and he said: "Please close that door.

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">It's fine in here, but I greatly fear you'll let in the cold and storm --

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Since I left Plumtree, down in Tennessee, it's the first time I've been warm."

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">There are strange things done in the midnight sun

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">By the men who moil for gold;

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">The Arctic trails have their secret tales

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">That would make your blood run cold;

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">But the queerest they ever did see

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge

<span style="font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">I cremated Sam McGee. [|Robert William Service]

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">Good Morning Starshine

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">Good morning starshine, the earth says "Hello" <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">You twinkle above us, We twinkle below <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">Good morning starshine, you lead us along <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">My love and me as we sing our early morning singing song

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">Gliddy glub gloopy nibby nabby noopy la la la lo lo <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">Sabba sibby sabba nooby abba nabba lee lee lo lo <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">Tooby ooby walla nooby abba nabba <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">Early morning singing song

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">Good morning starshine, the earth says "Hello" <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">You twinkle above us, We twinkle below <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">Good morning starshine, You lead us along <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">My love and me as we sing our early morning singing song

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">Gliddy glup gloopy nibby nabby nooby la la la lo lo <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">Sabba sibby sabba nooby abba nabba lee lee lo lo <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">Tooby ooby walla nooby abba nabba <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">Early morning singing song

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">Good morning starshine, the earth says "Hello" <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">You twinkle above us, We twinkle below <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">Good morning starshine, You lead us along <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">My love and me as we sing our early morning singing song

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">Singing a song, humming a song, singing a song <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">Loving a song, laughing a song, sing the song <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">Sing the song, song the sing <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">Song, song, song, sing, sing, sing, sing song

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">Song, song, song, sing, sing, sing, sing song

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">Song, song, song, sing, sing, sing, sing song

Peace

Peace will make the world free, Open our eyes, and help us see. Wars and conflicts make people sad, Hurting others is really bad.

Many kids live, through an awful war, Their family ends up very poor. During war, they often lose, Sometimes even, their own shoes.

Let's speak up, tell a friend, All these wars, need to end. Peace begins when we care, Let's make this world, truly fair.

Click [|here] for an illustrated version from Google Read and Write.

__**Be Glad Your Nose Is On Your Face**__ Be glad your nose is on your face, not pasted on some other place, for if it were where it is not, you might dislike your nose a lot.

Imagine if your precious nose were sandwiched in between your toes, that clearly would not be a treat, for you’d be forced to smell your feet.

Your nose would be a source of dread were it attached atop your head, it soon would drive you to despair, forever tickled by your hair.

Within your ear, your nose would be an absolute catastrophe, for when you were obliged to sneeze, your brain would rattle from the breeze.

Your nose, instead, through thick and thin, remains between your eyes and chin, not pasted on some other place-- be glad your nose is on your face!

Jack Prelutsky





< back