Review of
Sled
Dog and Other Poems of the North, by Charles E. Gillham
Five out of five stars
While the
technical aspects of the poetry does not shine, the message is one of interest
and significance. As is stated in the opening short biography of Charles
Gillham, the expression of life in the gold fields of Alaska and the Yukon are
based on personal experience. Gillham did indeed drive a dogsled in those areas
before there were snowmobiles and other, more efficient ways of transportation.
If you have
ever read the classic, “Call of the Wild” or other Yukon stories by Jack
London, you will recognize many aspects of life in that harsh land. It gets
extremely cold and people often lost digits due to frostbite. The hazards and
occasional joys of living in a land of short summers that can get hot and where
the sun shines nearly all day and winters that are long and brutal where there
is little sun are all expressed in these poems that are generally composed of
four-line stanzas where the second and fourth lines rhyme.
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