Thou, ruler and slave of the frozen plain! Thou, Malamute dog with the voice of pain! Is it thine or a spirit's, that demon howl, That snap and snarl, and whimpering growl Which chills like the curse of the slain? Thou wolf-faced thing with the jaws of steel And the fangs that the blood-red lips reveal; With appealing eyes which seem to entreat; With thy thieving heart, and thy patient feet For the trail where the snows congeal! Thou wonder of blended good and ill! What gives to thy tones that human thrill? For war on the gods, condemned to thy form Do vikings and dwarfs in the Arctic storm Purgatorial penance fulfill? Strange creature! Thy cry on the northern night Wails forth beneath the Auroral light, As if earth heard again the wild shriek of her woe When Odin's life-blood stained the halls of snow, The snow-halls on Valhalla's height. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...FIRELIGHT by KATHERINE MANSFIELD VARIATIONS: 10 by CONRAD AIKEN HOW THEY GO ON by JAMES GALVIN LOVELIGHT by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON THE CRANES OF IBYCUS by EMMA LAZARUS NORTH WIND TO DUTIFUL BEAST MIDWAY BETWEEN DIAL & FOOT OF GARDEN CLOCK by MARIANNE MOORE |