4Robert W. Service is a critical figure in American poetry for two reasons. His historical content is essential for understanding the northwest expansion of both Canada and the United States, and it's so readable If you have ever been to Alaska or just like the romance of the Alaskan gold rush and the trail of "98 you will like the poems of Robert Service. They vary form bawdy to eloquent and everywhere in between. "Songs Of A Sourdough" is Robert Service at his best . Here the Bard Of The Yukon use picture words that place the reader right in the Yukon of old. As you read you can see the stranger stagger in to the Malamute saloon and feel the fifty below gush of air until he closes the door behind him. You will hear him play the piano and see the ghastly look of the Lady that's known as Lou. You too will jump for the floor when the shooting of Dangerous Dan McGrew starts. You too will hear the Call of The Yukon and understand its Law while you come to appreciate The Younger Son.