Robert Service and the Isle of Dread

[Gary McBride]

An excerpt from the 'Law of the Yukon' by Robert Service that I plan to use when running the STAP. I thought I'd share.

Gary

I am the land that listens, I am the land that broods;
Steeped in eternal beauty, crystalline waters and woods.
Long have I waited lonely, shunned as a thing accurst,
Monstrous, moody, pathetic, the last of the lands and the first;
Visioning camp-fires at twilight, sad with a longing forlorn,
Feeling my womb o’er-pregnant with the seed of cities unborn.
Wild and wide are my borders, stern as death is my sway,
And I wait for the men who will win me—and I will not be won in a day;
And I will not be won by weaklings, subtle, suave and mild,
But by men with the hearts of vikings, and the simple faith of a child;
Desperate, strong and resistless, unthrottled by fear or defeat,
Them will I gild with my treasure, them will I glut with my meat.
-- Robert Service, "Law of the Yukon"

[Krypter]

Good choice. That should set the mood nicely.

[Gary McBride]

Krypter wrote:

Good choice. That should set the mood nicely.

Thanks. I've used Service in games before as the opening reading. Another under utilized poet I can see being relevant to Savage Tide is the great Paul Laurence Dunbar. From "The Rising of the Storm":

The storm-king flies,
His whip he plies,
And bellows down the wind.
The lightning rash
With blinding flash
Comes pricking on behind.

Rise, waters, rise,
And taunt the skies
With your swift-flitting form.
Sweep, wild winds, sweep,
And tear the deep
To atoms in the storm.

And the waters leapt,
And the wild winds swept,
And blew out the moon in the sky,
And I laughed with glee,
It was joy to me
As the storm went raging by!
-- Paul Laurence Dunbar

You can find both Service and Dunbar for free at:
poetryx.com

Gary