One Way To Warm Up

Last winter in these parts was mild, but this winter is different.  It's been bitter cold, we were treated to a near-blizzard Friday night, and this morning dawned at a balmy 2 degrees.  Brrr!

The other day I complained of being cold, and a friend recommended I read The Cremation of Sam McGee, a 1907 poem written by Robert W. Service.  So I did.  (Thanks, C.T.!)

The poem tells the story of two gold prospectors in the Yukon, one of them a Tennessee native named Sam McGee, who struggles to cope with the frigid environment.  Sam is debilitated by the cold and knows he's near death.  Citing his "awful dread of the icy grave," Sam makes his friend promise to cremate him when the time comes.

Sure enough, Sam dies and his friend hauls his frozen-stiff carcass to an abandoned steamship on the banks of a lake, where he cremates Sam's remains in the ship's old furnace.  After first walking away from his grim task, the friend returns to the blazing furnace.

The final lines:

I was sick with dread, but I bravely said: "I'll just take a peep inside.

I guess he's cooked, and it's time I looked"; ... then the door I opened wide.

And there sat Sam, looking cool and calm, in the heart of the furnace roar;

And he wore a smile you could see a mile, and he said: "Please close that door.

It's fine in here, but I greatly fear you'll let in the cold and storm—

Since I left Plumtree, down in Tennessee, it's the first time I've been warm."

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45081/the-cremation-of-sam-mcgee