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 you must follow and fight Under the vampire wing; There in the long, long night Hoping and vanquishing. Husbandman 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.
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Confirmed with The Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses, New York, Barse & Hopkins, 1907, pages 125-126.
Text Authorship:
- by Robert Service (1874 - 1958), "L'Envoi", appears in The Spell of the Yukon [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Stephen Lias (b. 1966), "L'Envoi", 2007, copyright © 2007 [ baritone voice and piano ], from Songs of a Sourdough, no. 5 [sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this page: Andrew Schneider [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2019-11-10
Line count: 32
Word count: 165