Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.

VII. The Sea

The Polar Quest

Richard Burton (1861–1940)

UNCONQUERABLY, men venture on the quest

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.

The polar quest! Life’s offer to the strong!

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.

Forever courage kindles, faith moves forth

To find the mystic floodway of the North.