O proudly name their names who bravely sail <br />To seek brave lost in Arctic snows and seas! <br />Bring money and bring ships, and on strong knees <br />Pray prayers so strong that not one word can fail <br />To pierce God's listening heart! <br />Rigid and pale, <br />The lost men's bodies, waiting, drift and freeze; <br />Yet shall their solemn dead lips tell to these <br />Who find them secrets mighty to prevail <br />On farther, darker, icier seas. <br />I go <br />Alone, unhelped, unprayed-for. Perishing <br />For years in realms of more than Arctic snow, <br />My heart has lingered. <br />Will the poor dead thing <br />Be sign to quide past bitter flood and floe, <br />To open sea, some strong heart triumphing?<br /><br />Helen Hunt Jackson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/an-arctic-quest/
