The poems that are recited are marked as Recital and the canticles are marked Canticle. Some poems I've made available as both recitals and canticles.
Please contact me if you have any comments. Some of the poems have an extra field that links to an online text resource. Follow that link if you want to read the poem. Certainly hope you enjoy!
The list items below link to information about the poem and recital:
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| Title | The Call of the Wild |
| Resource | [ MP3 2.2 MB | text ] |
| Created | 12-Jan-2001 |
| Author | Robert W. Service |
| Type | Recital |
| Comments | You like nature? This is a poem for nature lovers. Not just yon lover of nature, but the type who often may feel that in the heart of the wild is where they ought spend their remaining days. This implies that there is "wild" left to visit... I love this poem because it is so descriptive of the various aspects of nature while at the same time expressive of it's "call" to the human heart. Now, I've put a special effort into reciting this poem with heart, the way it speaks to my heart, anyway. Hope you enjoy. |
| Title | Carry On! |
| Resource | [ MP3 2.3 MB | text ] |
| Created | 16-Aug-2000 |
| Author | Robert W. Service |
| Type | Canticle |
| Comments | Put music to this while on a service flight to Detroit about a year and a half ago. Back in my technical support days. This has ended up being one of my all time favorite songs to sing in the shower and while out walking. Gets me lots of odd looks, but it's a strapping good poem to sing out wherever and whenever. |
| Title | Death In The Arctic |
| Resource | [ MP3 7.1 MB | text ] |
| Created | 18-Feb-2001 |
| Author | Robert W. Service |
| Type | Recital |
| Comments |
Heading off this MP3 recording is a small commentary about the
poem. Please try to ignore the stuttering pauses of the commentary
as I am more accustomed to reciting than I am to making verbal
comments. The comments I made are intended to clear up potential
confusion to the listener, for the poem has a somewhat complex
base to its delivery.
Well, about the poem, a man is dying in the Arctic somewhere "north of eighty-three". This is his story as he loses touch with reality and reflects on his life. Parts I through VII are divided into present/past expressions of the moment. You get a little of his current circumstance and the story behind it, and then his mind wanders off to some past experience (usually some tear-jerking quality to it) or just wanders off, period. Because this is a very difficult poem for me to recite, I would really appreciate any feedback the listener would be willing to provide. A link to my email is at the top of this page and in the comments tag of the MP3 itself. |
| Title | The Quitter |
| Resource | [ MP3 1.0 MB | text ] |
| Created | 16-Aug-2000 |
| Author | Robert W. Service |
| Type | Recital |
| Comments | I can honestly say this poem saved my life. We've all had those dark moments where the thought of giving up on life has crossed our minds. In my early life I had many such moments, in fact sometimes the moments would mount into hours, days and weeks. During such times bits of verse would come to me from this poem and inspire me to carry on just that much more. I've put some real gusto into reciting this poem. As usual, I try to recite in character with the poem. Far as I'm concerned, it's turned out as something worth listening to. |
| Title | Sunshine |
| Resource | [ MP3 10.1 MB | text ] |
| Created | 16-Aug-2000 |
| Author | Robert W. Service |
| Type | Recital |
| Comments | This is one of my favorite recitals. Parts 3, 6 and 11 are canticled to music I've thought up for the parts. Having read the poem over and over again for years on end, it always seemed to me these parts were supposed to be sung because they are printed in italics. Maybe I'm wrong. I've been told my delivery of this recital is quite emotional. Well, it is a very emotional poem. Sad, despairful, full of angst... And yet, beautiful. I struggle to express all of it in the way I deliver this recital. |
| Title | Clancy of the Mounted Police |
| Resource | [ MP3 6.6 MB | text ] |
| Created | 10-Jan-2001 |
| Author | Robert W. Service |
| Type | Recital |
| Comments | When I came across this poem as a child, it sparked in me a long childhood fantasy of one day becoming a mountee. Well, that never happened. But! People seem to enjoy it when I recite this poem to them. Now, I actually make some feeble attempt to sing the parts where the old prospector is "singing his crazy song" as well when the poem closes with Clancy's bit of song. |
| Title | The Ballad of the Black Fox Skin |
| Resource | [ MP3 7.4 MB | text ] |
| Created | 16-Aug-2000 |
| Author | Robert W. Service |
| Type | Recital |
| Comments |
Fun poem to recite. I've always loved reading this. It's about
a "devil fox" that's clearly cursed. It's four parts long, first
it's the story of how a tracker tracked and killed the devil fox.
Next is a little friendly advice about "dance hall wenches" and
the demise of the tracker. After that comes a falling out between
the dance hall wench and her partner, he kills her. The final
part has a spooky twist to its closing.
A little while back I decided to commit it to memory and try it out on a crowd at an open mike event. It was well received. My friends tell me this is the best recording I have on this page. |
| Title | The Ballad of the Brand |
| Resource | [ MP3 6.4 MB | text ] |
| Created | 27-Feb-2001 |
| Author | Robert W. Service |
| Type | Recital |
| Comments | Whatever you may think, this is easily one of the best poems Service has ever written. This is the story of two men and a woman; the second man get's branded when he cheats with the first man's wife. There are a lot of references to greek mythology in this poem; this serves to make this poem very intriguing on multiple levels. Of course, add Service's powerful imagery and you have a world class poem to recite. I have made every attempt to recite this poem as intensely as it is written. |
| Title | The Ballad of the Northern Lights |
| Resource | [ MP3 11.5 MB | text ] |
| Created | 16-Aug-2000 |
| Author | Robert W. Service |
| Type | Recital |
| Comments | This poem is more story than poem. Okay, it's a "ballad". Better yet, verse. Service fans know he didn't like being called a "poet". This poem is a brilliant and fascinating piece of writing. It is the story of a man who was led by fate to the fantastic source of the northern lights. On this expedition he and his friends suffer incredible hardship and bewitness unspeakable beauty. Especially where the northern lights were concerned. In this poem are heart-tweaking visual descriptions of the northern lights you never imagined possible. I've tried to do them justice. These descriptions are the reason I fell in love with this poem as a teenager some lost years ago. |
| Title | Jobson of the Star |
| Resource | [ MP3 3.7 MB | text ] |
| Created | 16-Aug-2000 |
| Author | Robert W. Service |
| Type | Recital |
| Comments | This poem has always sort of leapt out at me. Eventually I couldn't take it anymore and committed it to memory. Now it's one of my favorites to recite. It's like a lesson in geography. The poem is from the perspective of "a bloody tramp" who wanders far and wide, seeing the world many times over. He's friends with a journalist who sits in a pub and writes. It seems to me this poem is about how extreme the differences can be between people. One has his adventure in seeing "the market go to pot" while the other has his in wandering "secret ways and wide". I feel okay about how this recital turned out. |
| Title | The Dreamer |
| Resource | [ MP3 4.4 MB | text ] |
| Created | 16-Aug-2000 |
| Author | Robert W. Service |
| Type | Recital |
| Comments | This is about a telescoping dream. Not just any dream, mind you, but about dreams of death. It's written such that there is great room to ponder the meaning of the dreams. Are they past life reflections? Are they a psychic vision of the dreamer's death to come? Who knows... I've tried to recite this poem in it's character, but that's rather difficult since the character of the poem is, in some ways, ambiguous. |
| Title | The Land God Forgot |
| Resource | [ MP3 0.7 MB | text ] |
| Created | 16-Aug-2000 |
| Author | Robert W. Service |
| Type | Recital |
| Comments | This gorgeous little poem is the prelude to Service's first book of verse, "Songs of a Sourdough". It's a forlorn little bit of verse. It seems to try to capture the desolate beauty of certain aspects of the Yukon. During my last trip to the Yukon I got to see such sunsets as described in this poem. The "sunset" has long been my personal emblem of beauty. When I see something that truly touches my heart with its beauty, especially a woman, I'll often refer to that thing as a sunset. This poem is one such sunset. |
| Title | The Spell of the Yukon |
| Resource | [ MP3 3.5 MB | text ] |
| Created | 16-Aug-2000 |
| Author | Robert W. Service |
| Type | Canticle |
| Comments | This is the first poem to ever reach me. I was 12 years when I chanced upon it as I fished through "The Best Loved Poems of the American People". It was after I read this poem that I turned into an instant Robert Service fan. And I've been one ever since. I feel pretty good about this recording, though I plan to replace it with a better copy at some point. This is a poem that tells of the ruggedness, beauty and lure of the Yukon. The "spell" of the land itself. That spell, I feel, is clearly stated in the closing four lines of the poem. I've been there, and I know the spell. |
| Title | The Law of the Yukon |
| Resource | [ MP3 4.4 MB | text ] |
| Created | 16-Aug-2000 |
| Author | Robert W. Service |
| Type | Recital |
| Comments | I've come to the conclusion that this poem is far better recited than sung. Besides, I offer a pretty decent recital of this particular poem, or so I've been told. Indubitably, this is one of my favorite poems to recite because I get to sound all bent and everyone listening actually enjoys it. I discovered this poem about a year or so after reading for my first time "The Spell of the Yukon". Boy was I ever happy, I mean, "The Spell of the Yukon" was and still is my all time favorite poem. So, coming across another poem by the same author with such a similar name, it was a moment of sheer glee for me. Now, I have always fancied "The Spell of the Yukon" to be about the lure and beauty of the land while this poem was strictly about the harshness of the land. Both sides of the Yukon really do exist, it is a beautiful place. I mean, unbelievably beautiful. But, if you don't respect her, she'll "trample you under her feet". |
| Title | The Law of the Yukon |
| Resource | [ MP3 5.2 MB | text ] |
| Created | 16-Aug-2000 |
| Author | Robert W. Service |
| Type | Canticle |
| Comments | This is an "okay" canticle to listen to. I fancy it as a bit haunting, though no-one seems to share this opinion. There is also a link to a recital of this poem on this page. Seems to me that the recital turns out much better. See the table of contents at the top. |
| Title | The Pines |
| Resource | [ MP3 1.7 MB | text ] |
| Created | 27-Feb-2001 |
| Author | Robert W. Service |
| Type | Recital |
| Comments | There are a couple of "readings" of this poem out there on the web and through Napster, but this is not a "reading", this is a "recital" expressed with emotion from memory. It is difficult to fully express a poem's emotion while at the same time reading it. There are some who can do it, but I'm not one of them. The neat thing about this poem is that it speaks entirely from the point of view of the pine trees as a collective. Very wonderfully written, I do my absolute best to bring out the character of the poem in this recital. |
| Title | The Pines |
| Resource | [ MP3 2.2 MB | text ] |
| Created | 27-Feb-2001 |
| Author | Robert W. Service |
| Type | Canticle |
| Comments |
Put music to this poem while floating down the Yukon River from
Whitehorse to Dawson City in September of '98. Since I was
paddling solo, there was no-one to be tortured by my experimental
strains. It's a heart-felt canticle paying tribute to the beauty
and strength of the pine tree. The year old recording of the canticle has been replaced; back when I first recorded this canticle, my voice had no training and the microphone I used was pretty cheesy. This canticle sounds a bit better, though there is still a lot of room for improvement. |
| Title | The Lone Trail |
| Resource | [ MP3 2.1 MB | text ] |
| Created | 16-Aug-2000 |
| Author | Robert W. Service |
| Type | Canticle |
| Comments | Don't know why I like this poem. Maybe I can relate to it to some extent. I've always felt as if I've taken the lone trail in my life. However, I've never quite taken any of the trails described in this poem. The strain I put to this poem is a bit experimental. It sounds better recited. I'll include a recital of this poem down the road. |
| Title | The Womb |
| Resource | [ MP3 0.7 MB | text ] |
| Created | 16-Aug-2000 |
| Author | Robert W. Service |
| Type | Recital |
| Comments | Here's an odd little poem about pain and how it has been an ultimate benefit to mankind throughout the ages. Verse like this always makes me think. Think and think and think and think. It's a thinker's poem if you ask me. Probably, I like this poem because my own life has been rife with pain. Like to think that the damnable stuff has been at least "some" benefit to me. In many ways, this poem has brought me to look at pain in a different way. Perhaps it's not necessarily a bad, horrible thing. Perhaps it's just part of life and the evolution of human kind. |
| Title | Charge of the Light Brigade |
| Resource | [ MP3 1.4 MB | text ] |
| Created | 9-Mar-2001 |
| Author | Alfred Tennyson |
| Type | Recital |
| Comments | This is a very difficult poem for me to recite for some reason; however, I've given it my go. There are numerous resources on the web that tell about this poem and why it was written. Me, I just recite or canticle it. It is an historic poem that vividly captures this suicidal charge by a British light calvary during the Crimean War. |
| Title | Charge of the Light Brigade |
| Resource | [ MP3 1.7 MB | text ] |
| Created | 16-Aug-2000 |
| Author | Alfred Tennyson |
| Type | Canticle |
| Comments | The only thing I really relate to about my grand father is that he likes this poem. We don't talk, which is sad because I think he's an intriguing individual. The strain to which I canticle this poem came to me while out on a hike. I was just walking and reciting this poem to myself when this piece of music entered into my thoughts, so I tried it out on this poem, and it worked! This canticle is a direct evolution of what happened during that hike. |
| Title | The Song of the Brook |
| Resource | [ MP3 1.3 MB ] |
| Created | 16-Aug-2000 |
| Author | Alfred Tennyson |
| Type | Recital |
| Comments | This is spoken from the perspective of a babbling brook. It's a delightful little poem. Basically, the little brook tells of it's journey and eternal passing. This poem is actually a sub-poem of a much longer poem called "The Brook". |
| Title | The Daydream |
| Resource | [ MP3 6.4 MB | text ] |
| Created | 16-Aug-2000 |
| Author | Alfred Tennyson |
| Type | Recital |
| Comments | This is a poetic reflection on the fable of the Sleeping Beauty. Came across this poem as a 16 year old when I was a runaway. Spent a lot of time in libraries as a runaway. Wanted to learn about things despite not having school available to me. This is a positively beautiful poem and I do it no justice, though I try. While it is a 9 part poem, I have committed to memory only the parts of it that relate to the fable of the sleeping beauty. These parts are 2 through 6. Each part is individually titled. In short, it tells the story of the Sleeping Beauty in a way that lingers long in memory. Or, at least in my memory. |
| Title | Hereafter |
| Resource | [ MP3 2.5 MB | text ] |
| Created | 23-May-2001 |
| Author | Julia Caroline (Ripley) Dorr |
| Type | Canticle |
| Comments |
I recently discovered a repository of Julia Dorr's work online.
This poem is one of those I have discovered, and what a
discovery!!! This poem is beautiful in every way. For
the past two months (as of the file's creation date) I have
been refining this cantillation bit by bit. This is, in actuality,
my third rendition of a cantillation for this poem. The first two
were okay, but this third idea came to me and it seems to fit
the poem most well.
The poem looks upon the idea, feeling and draw of the afterlife. That fabled placed so often called "Hereafter". This poem gives me a shining sense of hope and peace with regard to that scary Hereafter, "For oh! The deeply loved are there!". |
| Title | The Legend of the Organ Builder |
| Resource | [ MP3 5.5 MB | text ] |
| Created | 16-Aug-2000 |
| Author | Julia C. R. Dorr |
| Type | Canticle |
| Comments |
I love this beautiful poem. Ever since I was a child have I loved
this poem and deeply so. It is a story about the consequences of
pride, haughtiness, arrogance, bitterness and anger. It is about
love and the repentance of the heart. It is about magic and beauty
as well as unspeakable grief and sorrow. In the end, it is about
forgiveness and peace.
The story of how I came to canticle this poem rather than recite it is interesting to me. Was in the shower one night just reciting it to myself when a certain strain entered my thoughts that seemed a perfect match. So I tried it on the poem. This canticle is a direct evolution of the same strain. This canticle was the first I ever sang outside of the shower in front of others. |
| Title | The Kiss |
| Resource | [ MP3 0.6 MB | text ] |
| Created | 24-Feb-2001 |
| Author | Julia C. R. Door |
| Type | Recitals |
| Comments | Julia Door had a knack for writing incredibly beautiful and romantic bits of verse, also known as poetry. She seemed to put her whole heart into it. I've been able to surmise as I've read through her poetry that her beloved husband probably died well before he reached old age. This poem strikes me as being about her husband's last kiss. It's truly a beautiful piece of writing, despite being quite short. Naturally, I've tried to recite it in character. |
| Title | "O Wind that Blows Out of the West" |
| Resource | [ MP3 1.2 MB | text ] |
| Created | 25-Feb-2001 |
| Author | Julia C. R. Door |
| Type | Recitals |
| Comments | Ever been in love with someone who lives far away? This is your poem. Julia Door does a splendid job of bringing out the sense of longing for a loved one who is far away, the sense of wanting so deeply to have some feeling of that loved one by whatever means it could be. Beautiful poem. It's amazing to me that this woman's poetry never became popular along with those of Tennyson and Keats. |
| Title | Tillage |
| Resource | [ MP3 1.0 MB ] |
| Created | 6-Sep-2002 |
| Author | Erin Thomas |
| Type | Recital |
| Comments | A ghazal about the struggle of the path walked with god... |
| Title | Empty Voyage |
| Resource | [ MP3 1.7 MB ] |
| Created | 12-Apr-2002 |
| Author | Erin Thomas |
| Type | Canticle |
| Comments | A ghazal about the depths of loneliness. Not just the loneliness that comes for want of an intimate partner, but that loneliness resulting from being overly unique such that no-one can understand or relate to you. This piece I try to sing in a way that brings out its feeling and meaning. |
| Title | Gift |
| Resource | [ MP3 1.1 MB ] |
| Created | 23-Mar-2002 |
| Author | Erin Thomas |
| Type | Canticle |
| Comments | This is written to a delightful woman who is, in fact, a gift. The MP3 is of a cantillation of this ghazal. This is the second ghazal I have managed to put to some musical idea. Considering the ghazal is normally intended to be a type of song, I would be remiss in my efforts to produce ghazals if I did not also attempt to make them musical as well. |
| Title | Inspiration |
| Resource | [ MP3 0.5 MB ] |
| Created | 2-Mar-2002 |
| Author | Erin Thomas |
| Type | Recital |
| Comments | This ghazal is written to someone dying of cancer. So far as I understand, the one fighting cancer put on a show of it for a good twenty years, hence the title. |
| Title | Etchings |
| Resource | [ MP3 0.7 MB ] |
| Created | 2-Mar-2002 |
| Author | Erin Thomas |
| Type | Recital |
| Comments | This ghazal walks through the variances of the four seasons by exploring the shadows cast by a deciduous tree in the midst of them each. |
| Title | Moonset |
| Resource | [ MP3 0.6 MB ] |
| Created | 2-Mar-2002 |
| Author | Erin Thomas |
| Type | Recital |
| Comments | This is a ghazal written to the moon. It attempts to capture the mood and imagery of a moon setting amidst a sea of clouds in the pre-dawn hours before twilight. |
| Title | The Touch of the Master's Hand |
| Resource | [ MP3 1.3 MB | text ] |
| Created | 4-Mar-2002 |
| Author | Myra Brooks Welch |
| Type | Recital |
| Comments |
This has been a favorite of mine since a very early age.
Strange that after being raised by an athiest father, an
alcoholic mother and various stations of the California
Court system that I would stumble upon this poem at the
age of 12 and somehow "understand" just who was being
talked about in relation to "the master" in this poem.
It is reasonable to say that this poem gave me a great deal of hope during a rather stormy and uncertain youth. |
| Title | Said the Rose |
| Resource | [ MP3 3.2 MB | text ] |
| Created | 18-Jun-2001 |
| Author | George H. Miles |
| Type | Canticle |
| Comments | This whole poem is spoken from the point of view of a rose. The poem is beautiful. I mean, deeply and amazingly beautiful. Haven't read a single other poem written by George Miles, but it is definitely on my to-do list. I hope you enjoy this dazzling poem through my expression of it. |
| Title | The Last Man |
| Resource | [ MP3 2.7 MB ] |
| Created | 16-Aug-2000 |
| Author | Thomas Campbell |
| Type | Recital |
| Comments | This is about the final words of the last living man on Earth. He stands alone on a beach or precipice and addresses the setting sun. He is dying and alone. As the sun sets he speaks a dirge of death. The death of humanity. It is a bleak sort of poem, but in its own way beautiful. It is a difficult poem to recite for me. This is because it is difficult to manage a mood in my being that could in some small way express what it must be like to be the last living thing on earth speaking humanity's dirge of death. Well, I do my best, you can always tell me what you think. |
| Title | The Hellbound Train |
| Resource | [ MP3 2.0 MB | text ] |
| Created | 16-Aug-2000 |
| Author | Unknown |
| Type | Recital |
| Comments | This is a very Christian poem. It's about a man who dreams he's going to hell on a "hellbound train". It scares the hell out of him and he finds religion. I've always, always loved this poem because of the imagery. I did okay at reciting this in character. |
| Title | Derelict |
| Resource | [ MP3 4.0 MB ] |
| Created | 16-Aug-2000 |
| Author | Young E. Allison |
| Type | Canticle |
| Comments | This is an old pirate-like poem. You've heard ol' Long John Silver bellowing out "Yo Ho Ho! And a bottle of rum!" in the movie Treasure Island. This is where he got it from. I've tried to merge Disney's version of the strain they molded to the first four lines into the idea of how I think it should sound. At 6 stanzas and 14 lines per stanza, it's not a short poem. Hence the respectable size of the MP3 file. Well, if you've ever found yourself quoting ol' Long John Silver, I recommend listening to it. Should bring your childhood right back to you. Feel pretty good about how this recording turned out. |
| Title | God The Artist |
| Resource | [ MP3 0.8 MB ] |
| Created | 22-Feb-2001 |
| Author | Angela Morgan |
| Type | Recital |
| Comments | Talk about a poem that makes you ponder what god was thinking about when he created all this stuff. This is a poem that asks what most children might think to ask about how god may have come up with his creations, but with big adult words. It's a beautiful little poem that seems to draw attention to god's love through his attention to detail. I mean, why would he pay so much attention to detail if he didn't give a hoot? What artist cares nothing for their art? |
| Title | The Path That Leads To Nowhere |
| Resource | [ MP3 0.8 MB ] |
| Created | 21-Feb-2001 |
| Author | Corinne Roosevelt Robinson |
| Type | Recital |
| Comments | I'm not really sure when I discovered this poem, but I know I found it in the well known "The Best Loved Poems of the American People" that has been in publication for nearly a century. This is a delightful poem that tells of a lighthearted place where one might find an uplifting release from the daily cares of life, the path that leads to nowhere. I have always related to this poem because of my love of hiking and walking about in nature. I quite enjoy taking aimless, meandering walks among the trees. Walks that go nowhere, but still the heart and spirit, bringing an often needed replenishing rest to the mind. |
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