Scottish Roots
Robert William Service poet laureate and novelist, often nicknamed “Bard of the Yukon” was born January 16th 1874 in Preston (Lancashire). Eldest of ten children, he was raised by his paternal grandfather and maiden aunts at Kilwinning, (Scotland), who encouraged his early skills for composing verses, playing with words and especially to recite Robert Burns’s poetry.
At 9, Robert moved back to his parents at Glasgow where he started a turbulent career of student, getting fired from school at 14. In the meantime, the young boy was a voracious reader of adventure writers such as Stevenson, Borrow, Thoreau, Bret Harte and others. Robert dreamed about becoming a sailor, instead his parents made him entered as bank clerk.
The People's Poet
Robert W. Service
Robert W. Service created legendary figures inspired by the vast expanses of magnificent but inhospitable Canadian territory. Until his last breath, his only wish was to be the people’s poet, spreading folkloric poetic tales imbued with optimism and the core value that he treasures above all, freedom.
His phenomenal popularity lay first in his unique style, a combination of fresh frontier realism, romantic motifs and powerful musicality of his rhymes often intended to be memorized easily and recited aloud. Secondly in his ability to express with a vivid authenticity the soul of common men and women, touching people lives.
Regular tributes took place from Canada to Scotland and France, schools and streets took Robert W. Service’s name in Dawson City, Lancieux. Canadian Postal Service issued a stamp in 1976 commemorating the most widely read Canadian poet of all time.
