The Spell of the Yukon Hank Snow

I wanted the gold, and I sought it
I scrabbled and mucked like a slave
Was it famine or scurvy -- I fought it;
I hurled my youth into a grave
I wanted the gold, and I got it --
Came out with a fortune last fall, --
Yet somehow life's not what I thought it
And somehow the gold isn't all

No! There's the land. (Have you seen it?)
It's the cussedest land that I know
From the big, dizzy mountains that screen it
To the deep, deathlike valleys below
Some say God was tired when He made it;
Some say it's a fine land to shun;
Maybe; but there's some as would trade it
For no land on earth -- and I'm one

You come to get rich (damned good reason);
You feel like an exile at first;
You hate it like hell for a season
And then you are worse than the worst
It grips you like some kinds of sinning;
It twists you from foe to a friend;
It seems it's been since the beginning;
It seems it will be to the end