The Cremation of Sam McGee - Read By Johnny Cash

With all the winter weather and associated activity , I cannot help but think of Canadian poet Robert Service when the snow, ice and wind chill me deep to the bone.

This poem in all its morbid humour  is a wonderful childhood memory from one of those PTA meetings . Our grade 7/8  class acted it out for parents , complete with props, in January 1962.

I particularly like this version for the beautiful art in Aboriginal-Arctic style with all its beautiful colour and motion.

Thinking of the poem always reminds me that the storm is never as tough as Sam's friend had it. May as well suck it up and bear it.

Photographer Ron Wassink's post on yesterday's blizzard in Iqaluit , due east of Sam McGee's Yukon and little further north, gives a sense of how Sam may have gotten a slight chill. www.ronwassink.blogspot.com

Since I am a thousand miles further south  , I only get to tough the cold of the far north for short periods during the winter. This past week has been a little taste...-20C with wind  chills to -35C for a couple of days. What a wimp I am becoming with age!

Enjoy DrSwarly video...as well as other renditions of The Cremation of Sam McGee .


The post in  http://blog.thecanadianencyclopedia.com  called 'Robert Service With a Smile' has a great examination of this poem - separating fact from fiction. Worth a look.