Poem by Robert William Service

L'Envoi (You who have lived in the Land)

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's smile,
  Bitter as unshed tears.

        Little of joy or mirth,
          Little of ease I sing;
        Sagas of men of earth,
          Humanly suffering,
        Such as you all have done;
          Savagely faring forth,
        Sons of the midnight sun,
          Argonauts of the North.

Far in the land God forgot
  Glimmers the lure of your trail;
Still in your lust are you taught
  Even to win is to fail.
Still must you follow and fight
  Under the vampire wing;
There in the long, long night
  Hoping and vanquishing.

        Husbandmen of the Wild,
          Reaping a barren gain;
        Scourged by desire, reconciled
          Unto disaster and pain;
        These my songs are for you,
          You who are seared with the brand:
        God knows I have tried to be true;
          Please God you will understand.

1. The Lure of Little Voices
2. The Sunshine Seeks My Little Room
3. The Rhyme of the Remittance Man
4. My Ancestors
5. Bessie's Boil

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