Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Oceanica: Vol. XXXI. 1876–79.
Prayer at the Pole
By Sallie BridgesA
With weary limbs and shattered forms,
Whose stalwart wills and gallant hearts
Were strong to face dark danger’s storms!
And one amidst them, slight of frame,
And pale from strife with death and pain,
A hero’s soul, whose martyr zeal
Bore nobly suffering’s cankering chain!
Of ice-built shrine, a temple grand,
Alone upon a frozen sea,
The saving and the rescued band,
Mid crystal columns reared aloft
Against a gray and cloud-draped dome,—
The only thing—that shadowed sky—
In all the waste that looked like home!
With reverent mien and moistened eyes,
Remembering scenes that long had passed,
Recalling love’s most tender ties,
As softly on the keen, cold air
Their leader’s voice rose calm and clear,
And raised, like prophet’s tone, the hope
That in each heart had found a bier.
For guidance, life, and rest, a prayer,
A low “Amen” from quivering lips,
Were all the pomps of service there!
It gave them strength to conquer death;
It made them brave to dare and do;
It kept them faithful to the end,
A band of brothers, tried and true!
O’er all the earth who praise and pray;
And bless him most of all, their chief,
Who first in duty led the way,—
Who first upon those regions drear
Of frozen, unknown waters spoke
The name of Christ, whose world-blessed sound
The solitude of silence broke!
Beneath the Arctic’s summer skies;
May speed the nations’ hoarded wealth,
And ’neath the tropics ebb and rise;
Yet bear abroad, where’er they flow,
That baptism of the holy Name
They echoed from his voice who died
And left those bergs to spread his fame!