Lines from "The Best of Robert Service" Quiz

Answer: The Cremation of Sam McGee

While there is no town named Plumtree in Tennessee, there is a Chinese restaurant in Knoxville named Plum Tree.

"The Cremation of Sam McGee" is one of the poems most often recited in bars in Alaska, both by entertainers and patrons.

Answer: The Ballad of Blasphemous Bill

It seems Blasphemous Bill, as he died all alone in the Frozen North, decided to go with his arms and legs all spread out, so that his buddy would have a tough time carrying out the chore of getting Bill into a coffin for burial. Alaskans apparently often have a strange sense of humor.

Answer: The Shooting of Dan McGrew

"The Shooting of Dan McGrew" and "The Cremation of Sam McGee" are two of Service's best-known poems and helped lead to his being known as "the Bard of the Yukon." Born in England and raised in Scotland, Service first came to Canada at the age of 21. He moved to France in 1913 and lived there through World War I, but had moved to California before World War II.

Many of his poems take place during those wars, as well as in the Paris of the Twenties and Thirties. He returned to France after the Second World War and died there in 1958.

Answer: Pantheist

Service's main claim to fame is his Yukon poetry, and "Pantheist" does not really fit this mold, while the three incorrect choices are definitely in the "Yukon" camp. "Pantheist" seems to fall more into his World War I work, since he introduces it with the couplet, "Lolling on a bank of thyme / Drunk with Spring I made this rhyme...." This is a characterization he himself gives to his poetry as "rhymes," rather than "poetry."

Answer: The Spell of the Yukon

"The Spell of the Yukon" is the first poem in my edition of "The Best of Robert Service". In it, Service puts his finger on the attraction of the Great White North, so to speak. It was the title poem (used on the edition published in the States) on Service's first published book in 1907: "The Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses".

Answer: The Law of the Yukon

You won't often find a line of poetry with "girt" and "grit" in the same line. "The Law of the Yukon" clearly states the challenge faced by those intrepid pioneers of the early Twentieth Century.

The poem inspired a silent film, released in 1920, by the same name, starring Edward Earle and June Elvidge and directed by Charles Miller.

Answer: "I should have bawled the bastard out: / A yellow dog he slew;"

The point of the poem is that the speaker views himself as a coward in the death of the yellow dog. However, he also acknowledges that there was actually nothing he could have done other than "bawl the bastard out," which would not have saved the dog, however.

The line "gold is less than brass" is from "Sentimental Shark". The line "I would strive with might and main" is from the poem, "Take It Easy". The line "My life's a holiday" is from "Brother Jim".

Answer: Heart o' the North

A high school in Anchorage, Alaska, is named after Robert Service, as are a middle school in Toronto and another school in Dawson City in the Yukon. Whitehorse in the Yukon also has a main road named for him and Canada put him on a postage stamp in 1976.

Answer: Just Think!

The first stanza goes like this: "Just think! some night the stars will gleam / Upon a cold, grey stone, / And trace a name with silver beam, / And lo! 'twill be your own." The poem concludes with this quatrain: "A little gain, a little pain, / A laugh, lest you may moan; / A little blame, a little fame, / A star-gleam on a stone."

Answer: Robespierre

This poem reflects Service's time spent in France and Paris, especially.

Of the four choices, only Robespierre "got it in the neck," as he was beheaded by the guillotine during the Reign of Terror following the French Revolution.