Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


ALASKA by CINCINNATUS HEINE MILLER

Poet Analysis

First Line: ICE BUILT, ICE BOUND, AND ICE BOUNDED!
Last Line: DOWN THIS UNFINISHED WORLD.
Subject(s): ALASKA PURCHASE (1867);

ICE built, ice bound, and ice bounded,
Such cold seas of silence! such room!
Such snow-light, such sea-light, confounded
With thunders that smite like a doom!
Such grandeur! such glory! such gloom!
Hear that boom! Hear that deep distant boom
Of an avalanche hurled
Down this unfinished world!

Ice seas! and ice summits! ice spaces
In splendor of white, as God's throne!
Ice worlds to the pole! and ice places
Untracked, and unnamed, and unknown!
Hear that boom! Hear the grinding, the groan
Of the ice-gods in pain! Hear the moan
Of yon ice mountain hurled
Down this unfinished world.



Home: PoetryExplorer.net