Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.
By George HenryBoker434 A Ballad of Sir John Franklin
O,
Cried a whaler in Baffin’s Bay.
To know if between the land and the pole
I may find a broad sea-way.
As you would live and thrive;
For between the land and the frozen pole
No man may sail alive.
And spoke unto his men:
Half England is wrong, if he be right;
Bear off to westward then.
Cried the little Esquimau,
Between your land and the polar star
My goodly vessels go.
The little Indian said;
And change your cloth for fur clothing,
Your vessel for a sled.
And the crew laughed with him too:—
A sailor to change from ship to sled,
I ween, were something new.
The vessels westward sped;
And wherever the sail of Sir John was blown,
The ice gave way and fled:—
And with many a surly roar,
But it murmured and threatened on every side,
And closed where he sailed before.
The broad and open sea?
Bethink ye what the whaler said,
Think of the little Indian’s sled!
The crew laughed out in glee.
The scud drives on the breeze,
The ice comes looming from the north,
The very sunbeams freeze.
We cannot rule the year;
But long are summer’s sun goes down,
On yonder sea we ’ll steer.
And floundered down the gale;
The ships were stayed, the yards were manned,
And furled the useless sail.
We sail not on yonder sea:
Why sail we not, Sir John Franklin?—
A silent man was he.
We cannot rule the year:
I ween we cannot rule the ways,
Sir John, wherein we’d steer.
And closed beneath the lee,
Till the thickening waters dashed no more:
’T was ice around, behind, before—
My God! there is no sea!
What of the Esquimau?
A sled were better than a ship,
To cruise through ice and snow.
The northern light came out,
And glared upon the ice-bound ships,
And shook its spears about.
And on the decks was laid,
Till the weary sailor, sick at heart,
Sank down beside his spade.
The hissing wind is bleak,
The hard, green ice as strong as death:—
I prithee, Captain, speak!
The singing breeze is cold,—
The ice is not so strong as hope,
The heart of man is bold!
High over the main flag-staff?
Above the ridges the wolf and bear
Look down, with a patient, settled stare,
Look down on us and laugh.
We could not rule the year;
But summer will melt the ice again,
And open a path to the sunny main,
Whereon our ships shall steer.
The winter came around;
But the hard, green ice was strong as death,
And the voice of hope sank to a breath,
Yet caught at every sound.
And there, and there, again?
’T is some uneasy iceberg’s roar,
As he turns in the frozen main.
Across the ice-fields steal:
God give them grace for their charity!—
Ye pray for the silly seal.
And where are the English trees,
And where are the little English flowers
That open in the breeze?
You shall see the fields again,
And smell the scent of the opening flowers,
The grass, and the waving grain.
My Mary waits for me.
Oh! when shall I see my old mother,
And pray at her trembling knee?
Think not such thoughts again.
But a tear froze slowly on his cheek:
He thought of Lady Jane.
The ice grows more and more;
More settled stare the wolf and bear,
More patient than before.
We ’ll ever see the land?
’T was cruel to send us here to starve,
Without a helping hand.
So far from help or home,
To starve and freeze on this lonely sea:
I ween the lords of the Admiralty
Would rather send than come.
Or sail to our own country,
We have done what man has never done—
The truth is founded, the secret won—
We passed the Northern Sea!