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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE VOICE OF THE ANTARCTIC by GEORGE EDWARD WOODBERRY

First Line: I HID WITHIN THE EVERLASTING DEARTH
Last Line: "OH, TO WHAT COLD HORIZONS BRING'ST THOU MORN!"

"I HID within the everlasting dearth, --
And who art thou that comest? dreadful thou art
Unto all Being who hast power to dart
Thy weird self-knowledge through creation's girth!
What is thy purpose? Wherefore was thy birth?
Thou of the mystic understanding heart!
What thinkest thou, seeing to-day depart
The last Unknown from the all-conquered earth?

"What prospect, if not this, should give thee pause,
O Human Eye, whose lustre, age by age,
Spreads through the blind deep wherein thou wast born?
Of the Eternal Dark thy gendering was;
Eternal Want has been thy pilgrimage;
Oh, to what cold horizons bring'st thou morn!"



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