Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A VERY EXCEPTIONAL ESKIMO, by ISABEL ECCLESTONE MACKAY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A VERY EXCEPTIONAL ESKIMO, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Shall I tell you a few of the things I know
Last Line: If he didn't, the cold might freeze his dreams!
Subject(s): Arctic; Eskimos; Native Americans; Snow; Winter; Inuit; Indians Of America; American Indians; Indians Of South America


SHALL I tell you a few of the things I know
Of a very exceptional Eskimo?
The tale I shall ask you to take on trust,
For strange things happen and always must,
And some of the strangest ever known
Occur far up in the Arctic Zone.

In the Arctic Zone by the Great North Pole
Lives this Eskimo, in a scooped-out hole
In a great snow-bank that is mountain-high—
If you reached the top you could touch the sky!—
But his clothes he views with a greater pride,
They are all white fur, with the fur inside.

When he wishes his friends to come to dine
He calls them up on the Polar Line
To say, "Please come at the hour of two
And partake of a dish of sealskin stew,
With codfish oil and a water-ice
And a blubber-pudding that's very nice!"

When he goes to ride, he starts his sleigh
And never stops for a whole long day—
Lickety-whiz-z-z! Down a slope of white!
And a reindeer carries him back at night,
While the polar bears from his path he warns
By blowing one of the reindeer's horns!

When he goes to bed it is not enough
To hide his nose in a bearksin muff,
But his ears he wraps, if it's very cold,
In a feather-bed, and I have been told
That he toasts his head—for it really seems,
If he didn't, the cold might freeze his dreams!





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