The Cremation of Sam McGee by Ted Harrison

"Now a promise made is a debt unpaid, 

and the trail has its own stern code.

In the days to come, though my lips were dumb,

in my heart how I cursed that load.

In the long, long night, by the lone firelight,

while the huskies, round in a ring,

Howled out their woes to the homeless snows

— O God! how I loathed the thing."

 

The Cremation of Sam McGee 

illustrated by Ted Harrison