Buckwheat Donahue on The Harpy

Buckwheat’s Introduction to The Harpy

"This is a story about a harpy. The word comes from Greek and Roman mythology, but by the time of the Gold Rushes—California in 1849, Colorado in 1859, and later in the Yukon and Alaska—it had taken on a different meaning. Back then, it was slang for a lady of the evening."

"To me, this poem really shows the versatility of Robert Service. People often think of him as writing from a man’s perspective, but in The Harpy, you see something else—his ability to step into the mind of a woman, to understand her struggles, her story. And remember, this was written over a hundred years ago. Yet somehow, Service still managed to capture something real."