Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE ULTIMATE NORTH, by WALLACE RICE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE ULTIMATE NORTH, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Now doth the north his inmost secret yield
Last Line: This blending of valhall and niffleheim.
Alternate Author Name(s): Groot, Cecil De
Subject(s): North Pole


I

Now doth the North his inmost secret yield;
Now is there nothing more beyond; we know
The Thule Ultima. The final woe
Of the vast frozen zone, though triple-steeled
With cold and storm, lays off the decent shield
Granted it an eternity ago
Among great gales, and silence, ice, and snow,
When pallid Hela's horrors stalked afield.

No more the lure of the North's hidden things
Tempts man to pay the last and awful price;
For secret was there none. Long wanderings
Have proved again what trifles may entice
Mankind; if but denied, the spirit springs
Even at a flock of palaeocrystic ice!

II

Yet has the frosty deed full excellence.
It is no barren thing to set a goal
High and afar, and strive with iron soul,
Throwing aside despair as vain pretence,
Facing the terrors of the elements,
Discarding failure, till, beside the Pole
One's name is set, as on the eternal scroll
Of those who win from Earth's own dissidence.

Praise to the victor! Yet let laurels rest
As well upon the still undaunted brow
Of each who sought and won not from the rime
The final triumph; these are not unblest,
Though to a single soul the Norns allow
This blending of Valhall and Niffleheim.





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