Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.
VII. The SeaThe Polar Quest
Richard Burton (18611940)U
And seek an ocean amplitude unsailed,
Cold, virgin, awful. Scorning ease and rest,
And heedless of the heroes who have failed,
They face the ice floes with a dauntless zest.
To pass beyond the pale, to do and dare,
Leaving a name that stirs us like a song.
And making captive some strange Otherwhere,
Though grim the conquest, and the labor long.
To find the mystic floodway of the North.