Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature:
An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891.
Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889
Song of the North Wind
By James Benjamin Kenyon (18581924)H
Hear thou the singing
Of him who has never
Been paid for his song!
This is the choice of me,
Still to go ringing
The rhymes that forever
Are surly and strong.
Whence I have hasted?
Know’st thou the way I take
Over the earth?
Still stand the legends old—
Ice-kings unwasted—
Fending the frigid lake
Where I had birth.
Snow-fed from far peaks;
Firths of the polar sea
Rigid as stone;
Shag-bearded mountains;
Deeps that no star seeks;
Strange lights that solar be—
These I have known.
Sorrow and anguish,
Famine and fever
Follow my path.
I am the death of thee;
I make thee languish;
Swiftly I sever
Love’s ties in my wrath.
Gyves cannot bind me,
Bolts cannot lock me,
Floods cannot drown!
Fly—and I fold thee;
Hide—and I find thee;
Cry—and I mock thee;
Howling thee down!