Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE CIGOA, by VIRGINIA RUSS


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE CIGOA, by                    
First Line: This drab shell cast upon the final shore
Last Line: That mind might envisage a complete sphere.
Subject(s): Amundsen, Roald (1872-1928); Disasters; San Francisco; Shipwrecks


(On the beach at Land's End Highway, San Francisco, lies the hulk of the Cjgoa, in which Amundsen
made one of the early attempts to sail to the North Pole.)

This drab shell cast upon the final shore
Anchored to solid earth, rooted in land --
Her keel lies heavy now on waves of sand,
Her ocean-aimed prow soaked with old salt lore.

Small craft wherein a large idea set forth,
So the insatiable mind grow free,
Plunging through frozen crust of unknown sea
Frail girth pressed by tall ice cliffs of weird north

Dancing around great icebergs with slim keel
Pilot guided by new-found polar stars
While icicles festooned the frigid spars
Sails furled by stiff hands that no life could feel.

But move obediently by strong thought steered
Pushing relentlessly towards the dim new
Sustaining numbed bodies of dogged crew
Who dreading dangers pushed on while they feared.

Yearnings of men search ever for the Pole
Who travel recklessly towards the far goal
Enduring white terror that they might find
The ultimate beckoning to their mind --
Slight body that must know the lonely fear
That mind might envisage a complete sphere.





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