Helen Hunt Jackson

Here you will find the Poem An Arctic Quest of poet Helen Hunt Jackson

An Arctic Quest

O proudly name their names who bravely sail 
To seek brave lost in Arctic snows and seas! 
Bring money and bring ships, and on strong knees 
Pray prayers so strong that not one word can fail 
To pierce God's listening heart! 
Rigid and pale, 
The lost men's bodies, waiting, drift and freeze; 
Yet shall their solemn dead lips tell to these 
Who find them secrets mighty to prevail 
On farther, darker, icier seas. 
I go 
Alone, unhelped, unprayed-for. Perishing 
For years in realms of more than Arctic snow, 
My heart has lingered. 
Will the poor dead thing 
Be sign to quide past bitter flood and floe, 
To open sea, some strong heart triumphing?