{
 "id": "robert-w-service/the-parsons-son",
 "title": "The Parson’s Son",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Robert W. Service",
 "poet_slug": "robert-w-service",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Songs of a Sourdough",
 "book_slug": "songs-of-a-sourdough",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 2,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1907,
  "venue": "Songs of a Sourdough (1907)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/songsofsourdoug00serv"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/robert-w-service_songs-of-a-sourdough",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25546",
   "https://archive.org/details/songsofsourdoug00serv"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 46,
  "n_stanzas": 12,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 85,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "This is the song of the parson’s son, as he squats in his shack alone,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On the wild, weird nights when the Northern Lights shoot up from the frozen zone,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And it’s sixty below, and couched in the snow the hungry huskies moan.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“I’m one of the Arctic brotherhood, I’m an old-time pioneer.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I came with the first⁠—O God! how I’ve cursed this Yukon⁠—but still I’m here.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’ve sweated athirst in its summer heat, I’ve frozen and starved in its cold;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’ve followed my dreams by its thousand streams, I’ve toiled and moiled for its gold.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Look at my eyes⁠—been snow-blind twice; look where my foot’s half gone;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And that gruesome scar on my left cheek where the frost-fiend bit to the bone.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Each one a brand of this devil’s land, where I’ve played and I’ve lost the game,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A broken wreck with a craze for hooch, and never a cent to my name.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“This mining is only a gamble, the worst is as good as the best;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I was in with the bunch and I might have come out right on top with the rest;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With Cormack, Ladue and Macdonald⁠—O God! but it’s hell to think",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the thousands and thousands I’ve squandered on cards and women and drink.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“In the early days we were just a few, and we hunted and fished around,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor dreamt by our lonely campfires of the wealth that lay under the ground.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We traded in skins and whiskey, and I’ve often slept under the shade",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of that lone birch-tree on Bonanza, where the first big find was made.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“We were just like a great big family, and every man had his squaw,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And we lived such a wild, free, fearless life beyond the pale of the law;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till sudden there came a whisper, and it maddened us every man,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I got in on Bonanza before the big rush began.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Oh, those Dawson days, and the sin and the blaze, and the town all open wide!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(If God made me in His likeness, sure He let the devil inside.)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But we all were mad, both the good and the bad, and as for the women, well⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No spot on the map in so short a space has hustled more souls to hell.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Money was just like dirt there, easy to get and to spend.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I was all caked in on a dance-hall jade, but she shook me in the end.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It put me queer, and for near a year I never drew sober breath,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till I found myself in the bughouse ward with a claim staked out on death.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Twenty years in the Yukon, struggling along its creeks;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Roaming its giant valleys, scaling its godlike peaks;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bathed in its fiery sunsets, fighting its fiendish cold,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Twenty years in the Yukon⁠ ⁠… twenty years⁠—and I’m old.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Old and weak, but no matter, there’s hooch in the bottle still.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’ll hitch up the dogs tomorrow, and mush down the trail to Bill.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It’s so long dark, and I’m lonesome⁠—I’ll just lay down on the bed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tomorrow I’ll go⁠ ⁠… tomorrow⁠ ⁠… I guess I’ll play on the red.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“… Come, Kit, your pony is saddled. I’m waiting, dear, in the court⁠ ⁠…",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "… Minnie, you devil, I’ll kill you if you skip with that flossy sport⁠ ⁠…",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "… How much does it go to the pan, Bill?⁠ ⁠… play up, School, and play the game⁠ ⁠…",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "… Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name⁠ ⁠…”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "This was the song of the parson’s son, as he lay in his bunk alone,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ere the fire went out and the cold crept in, and his blue lips ceased to moan,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the hunger-maddened malamutes had torn him flesh from bone.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}