The Cremation Of Sam Mcgee Analysis

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Get Rich or Die Trying During the Yukon trail gold rush, many people risked their lives and many others died all because they wanted gold to have a better life and provide for their families. In Robert W. Service’s poem “The Cremation of Sam McGee” it depicts the struggles the characters went through for gold. This poem which was written a hundred years ago is still a relevant poem today, because of its figurative language, voice, and imagery.
Robert Service’s first literary term is figurative language. By Sam McGee stating, “it’s the cursed cold and it’s got a right hold till I’m chilled to the bone” (Service 22). It shows Sam McGee is running out of time before the cold gets to him, on the adventure. By using figurative language, it shows hope on their adventure to find gold especially when “The stars o’erhead were dancing heal to toe” (Service 18). Even though it was really cold they still found light in the adventure and did not give up. …show more content…

At the beginning of the story the author states that Sam would “sooner live in hell” (service 12). Adding a tonal shift adds suspense to the story and gets you intrigued, and at some point you know something tragic is going to happen. When Sam McGee’s life is coming to an end his only wish when he died was for his friend to agree to “cremate my last remains” (Service 32). With Sam McGee saying this, it adds mystery to the story and you want to see if he will answer his friend's last request and have to live with it, knowing you had to creamte your