Friday, February 17, 2017

Review of "Sled Dog and Other Poems of the North," by Charles E. Gillham



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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