To C. M....

The lonely sunsets flare forlorn Down valleys dreadly desolate; The lordly mountains soar in scorn, As still as death, as stern as fate. The lonely sunsets flame and die; The giant valleys gulp the ni...

This is the law of the Yukon, and ever she makes it plain: “Send not your foolish and feeble; send me your strong and your sane. Strong for the red rage of battle; sane, for I harry them sore; Send me...

This is the song of the parson’s son, as he squats in his shack alone, On the wild, weird nights when the Northern Lights shoot up from the frozen zone, And it’s sixty below, and couched in the snow t...

I wanted the gold, and I sought it; I scrabbled and mucked like a slave. Was it famine or scurvy⁠—I fought it, I hurled my youth into the grave. I wanted the gold and I got it⁠— Came out with a fortun...

Have you gazed on naked grandeur where there’s nothing else to gaze on, Set pieces and drop-curtain scenes galore, Big mountains heaved to heaven, which the blinding sunsets blazon, Black canyons wher...

Ye who know the Lone Trail fain would follow it, Though it lead to glory or the darkness of the pit. Ye who take the Lone Trail, bid your love goodbye; The Lone Trail, the Lone Trail follow till you d...

There where the mighty mountains bare their fangs unto the moon; There where the sullen sundogs glare in the snow-bright, bitter noon, And the glacier-gutted streams sweep down at the clarion call of ...

The waves have a story to tell me, As I lie on the lonely beach; Chanting aloft in the pine-tops, The wind has a lesson to teach; But the stars sing an anthem of glory I cannot put into speech. The wa...

We sleep in the sleep of ages, the bleak, barbarian pines; The grey moss drapes us like sages, and closer we lock our lines, And deeper we clutch through the gelid gloom where never a sunbeam shines. ...

There was a woman, and she was wise; woefully wise was she; She was old, so old, yet her years all told were but a score and three; And she knew by heart, from finish to start, the Book of Iniquity. T...

There’s a cry from out the Loneliness⁠—Oh, listen, Honey, listen! Do you hear it, do you fear it, you’re a-holding of me so? You’re a-sobbing in your sleep, dear, and your lashes, how they glisten⁠— D...

When the long, long day is over, and the Big Boss gives me my pay, I hope that it won’t be hellfire, as some of the parsons say. And I hope that it won’t be heaven, with some of the parsons I’ve met⁠—...

If you’re up against a bruiser and you’re getting knocked about⁠— Grin. If you’re feeling pretty groggy, and you’re licked beyond a doubt⁠— Grin. Don’t let him see you’re funking, let him know with ev...

A bunch of the boys were whooping it up in the Malamute saloon; The kid that handles the music-box was hitting a jag-time tune; Back of the bar, in a solo game, sat Dangerous Dan McGrew, And watching ...

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 sight...

I haled me a woman from the street, Shameless, but, oh, so fair! I bade her sit in the model’s seat, And I painted her sitting there. I hid all trace of her heart unclean; I painted a babe at her brea...

I know a garden where the lilies gleam, And one who lingers in the sunshine there; She is than white-stoled lily far more fair, And oh, her eyes are heaven-lit with dream. I know a garret, cold and da...

It’s fine to have a blowout in a fancy restaurant, With terrapin and canvasback and all the wine you want; To enjoy the flowers and music, watch the pretty women pass, Smoke a choice cigar, and sip th...

One said: Thy life is thine to make or mar, To flicker feebly, or to soar, a star; It lies with thee⁠—the choice is thine, is thine, To hit the ties or drive thy auto-car. I answer Her: The choice is ...

There’s a race of men that don’t fit in, A race that can’t stay still; So they break the hearts of kith and kin, And they roam the world at will. They range the field and they rove the flood, And they...

O’er the dark pines she sees the silver moon, And in the west, all tremulous, a star; And soothing sweet she hears the mellow tune Of cowbells jangled in the fields afar. Quite listless, for her daily...

There’s a four-pronged buck a-swinging in the shadow of my cabin, And it roamed the velvet valley till today; But I tracked it by the river, and I trailed it in the cover, And I killed it on the mount...

This is the payday up at the mines, when the bearded brutes come down; There’s money to burn in the streets tonight, so I’ve sent my klooch to town, With a haggard face and a ribbon of red entwined in...

When a man gits on his uppers in a hardpan sort of town, An’ he ain’t got nothin’ comin’, an’ he can’t afford ter eat, An’ he’s in a fix fer lodgin’, an’ he wanders up an’ down, An’ you’d fancy he’d b...

If you leave the gloom of London and you seek a glowing land, Where all except the flag is strange and new, There’s a bronzed and stalwart fellow who will grip you by the hand, And greet you with a we...

The cruel war was over⁠—oh, the triumph was so sweet! We watched the troops returning, through our tears; There was triumph, triumph, triumph down the scarlet glittering street, And you scarce could h...

A pistol shot rings round and round the world: In pitiful defeat a warrior lies. A last defiance to dark Death is hurled, A last wild challenge shocks the sunlit skies. Alone he falls with wide, wan, ...

An angel was tired of heaven, as he lounged in the golden street; His halo was tilted sideways, and his harp lay mute at his feet; So the Master stooped in His pity, and gave him a pass to go, For the...

We couldn’t sit and study for the law; The stagnation of a bank we couldn’t stand; For our riot blood was surging, and we didn’t need much urging To excitements and excesses that are banned. So we too...

It’s cruel cold on the waterfront, silent and dark and drear; Only the black tide weltering, only the hissing snow; And I, alone, like a storm-tossed wreck, on this night of the glad New Year, Shuffli...

Say! You’ve struck a heap of trouble⁠— Bust in business, lost your wife; No one cares a cent about you, You don’t care a cent for life; Hard luck has of hope bereft you, Health is failing, wish you’d ...

’Twas a year ago and the moon was bright (Oh, I remember so well, so well), I walked with my love in a sea of light, And the voice of my sweet was a silver bell. And sudden the moon grew strangely dul...

Can you recall, dear comrade, when we tramped God’s land together, And we sang the old, old Earth-song, for our youth was very sweet; When we drank and fought and lusted, as we mocked at tie and tethe...

You who have lived in the Land, You who have trusted the trail; You who are strong to withstand, You who are swift to assail; Songs have I sung to beguile, Vintage of desperate years Hard as a harlot’...