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. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TWO PROMENADES SENTIMENTALES: 1. RAIN by EDITH SITWELL THE FLOOD OF YEARS by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT A COMPARISON [ADDRESSED] TO A YOUNG LADY by WILLIAM COWPER FOR DECORATION DAY: 1861-1865 by RUPERT HUGHES THE SKELETON IN ARMOR by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW THE WEATHER-COCK POINTS SOUTH by AMY LOWELL ODES: BOOK 2: ODE 12. ON RECOVERING FROM A FIT OF SICKNESS IN COUNTRY by MARK AKENSIDE THE BIRDS: THE HOOPOE'S CALL TO HIS WIFE PROCNE, THE NIGHTINGALE by ARISTOPHANES |