Author: Robert W. Service
Author Website: No Author Website
Illustrator: Ted Harrison
Illustrator Website: No Illustrator Website
Media Used: Painting
Publisher: David R. Godine
Year of Publication: 1988
ISBN: 0879237481
Annotation: The scene is Alaska during the Yukon Gold Rush in the late 1800’s. The saloon is teeming when a miner comes in drinks, plays the piano and then two men are dead. The why is left to the reader to figure out.
Personal Reaction: Although this poem is old it still catches the reader’s attention and leaves one with the same wondering. I think despite being a classic, the poem could be used with history classes and certainly language arts. I do not have a problem with some of the vocabulary but some parents might have a reaction to hell, damn and a saloon scene.
Illustration: The colorful but simple painting allows the reader to have a visual feel for the text but also enhances the poet’s flare for description. The tension in the saloon between the newcomer and Dan McGrew is palatable as the two characters face off. The artist very deftly shows McGrew’s face continuing to grow sterner and the tension in his eyes as the stranger plays the piano and attracts the lady love Lou.
Use of Media: The artist uses simple but bold and colorful paintings.
Use of literary device: Alliteration is used with phrases like dog dirty and lady love. The metaphor is used in “loaded for bear” which is a term like itching for a fight. Simile is used in “like a man with a foot in the grave”. Rhyme is utilized throughout the poem as in glare-bear, louse-house and spell-hell.
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