DR. PALMER'S ODE 



Now within the sleeping sail, 

 Murmurs soft the gentle gale. 

 Ease the sheet, and keep away : 

 Glory guides us south to-day. 



2 



" Yonder, see ! the icy portal 



Opens for us to the Pole ; 

 And, where never entered mortal, 



Thither speed we to the goal. 

 Hopes before, and doubts behind, 

 On we fly before the wind. 

 Steady, so now let it blow ! 

 Glory guides, and south we go. 



3 



" Vainly do these gloomy borders 

 All their frightful forms oppose ; 



Vainly frown these frozen warders, 

 Mailed in sleet and helmed in snows. 



Though, beneath the ghastly skies, 



Curdled all the ocean lies, 



Lash we up its foam anew 



Dash we all its terrors through ! 



" Circled by these columns hoary, 

 All the field of fame is ours ; 



Here to carve a name in story, 

 Or a tomb beneath these towers. 



Southward still our way we trace, 



Winding through an icy maze. 



Luff her to there she goes through ! 



Glory leads, and we pursue." 



Undaunted, though, despite their mirth, 

 Still by a certain awe subdued, 



They reach the last retreat on earth, 

 Where Nature hoped for solitude. 



Between two icebergs gaunt and pale, 

 Like giant sentinels on post, 



Without a welcome or a hail, 



Intrude they on the realm of Frost. 



381 



