ALASKA 



By Major John F. Lacey 



A land of contradictions and surprise ; 

 A land of dayless nights and nightless days ; 

 Land of the midnight sun and midday stars ; 

 A land of distance and immensity : 

 The sun goes down and yet it is not night ; 

 The light still lingers in the rosy North ; 

 Or in the winter's dark the broad faced moon 

 And flaming lights join with the radiant stars 

 To light the snowy landscape like the day ; 

 Alaska. 



Her gateway, grand, unequaled and superb, 

 Inviting Nature's lover to behold 

 Her wondrous beauty and sublimity ; 

 From Ketchikan to frigid Kougorok, 

 Where glaciers, like frozen waterfalls, 

 Their sources hid among the cloudy mists, 

 Drop icebergs green and blue, or snowy white, 

 Into the stillness of the icy sea; 

 Alaska. 



A thousand miles through inland lakes and sounds, 

 Amid the ancient mountains clad with snows ; 

 To the great pass by Skagway's rugged shore; 

 Geneva, Como, Lomond, and Lucerne, 

 Champlain and George, the Hudson and the Alps 

 All rolled in one, a thousand miles in length ; 

 By Bennett and La Barge's deep blue lakes; 

 By rushing Whitehorse Rapids' foaming stream; 



