| |
| UP! up! let us a voyage take; | |
| Why sit we here at ease? | |
| Find us a vessel tight and snug, | |
| Bound for the Northern Seas. | |
| |
| I long to see the Northern Lights, | 5 |
| With their rushing splendors, fly | |
| Like living things, with flaming wings, | |
| Wide o’er the wondrous sky. | |
| |
| I long to see those icebergs vast, | |
| With heads all crowned with snow, | 10 |
| Whose green roots sleep in the awful deep, | |
| Two hundred fathoms low. | |
| |
| I long to hear the thundering crash | |
| Of their terrific fall; | |
| And the echoes from a thousand cliffs | 15 |
| Like lovely voices call. | |
| |
| There shall we see the fierce white bear; | |
| The sleepy seals aground; | |
| And the spouting whales, that to and fro | |
| Sail with a dreary sound. | 20 |
| |
| There may we tread on depths of ice, | |
| That the hairy mammoth hide; | |
| Perfect as when, in times of old, | |
| The mighty creature died. | |
| |
| And whilst the unsetting sun shines on | 25 |
| Through the still heaven’s deep blue, | |
| We ’ll traverse the azure waves, the herds | |
| Of the dread sea-horse to view. | |
| |
| We ’ll pass the shore of solemn pine, | |
| Where wolves and black bears prowl; | 30 |
| And away to the rocky isles of mist, | |
| To rouse the northern fowl. | |
| |
| Up there shall start ten thousand wings, | |
| With a rushing, whistling din; | |
| Up shall the auk and fulmar start,— | 35 |
| All but the fat penguin. | |
| |
| And there, in the wastes of the silent sky, | |
| With the silent earth below, | |
| We shall see, far off to his lonely rock, | |
| The lonely eagle go. | 40 |
| |
| Then softly, softly will we tread | |
| By inland streams, to see | |
| Where the pelican of the silent north | |
| Sits there all silently. | |
| |
| But if thou love the Southern Seas, | 45 |
| And pleasant summer weather, | |
| Come, let us mount this gallant ship, | |
| And sail away together. | |
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