  Up! up! let us a voyage take; Why sit we here at ease? Find us a vessel tight and snug, Bound for the northern seas. I long to see the Northern Lights, With their rushing splendors, fly, Like living things, with flaming wings, Wide o'er the wondrous sky. I long to see those icebergs vast, With heads all crowned with snow, Whose green roots sleep in the awful deep, I long to hear the thundering crash Of their terrific fall; And the echoes from a thousand cliffs, Like lonely voices call. There we shall see the fierce white bear, The sleepy seals aground, And the spouting whales that to and fro Sail with a dreary sound. We'll pass the shores of solemn pine, Where wolves and black bears prowl, And away to the rocky isles of mist To rouse the northern fowl. And there, in the wastes of the silent sky, With the silent earth below, We shall see far off to his lonely rock The lonely eagle go. Then softly, softly we will tread By island streams, to see Where the pelican of the silent North Sits there all silently. —William Howitt. |
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