[In May, 1845, Sir John Franklin, British rear-admiral and explorer, set sail with two ships, under orders of the Admiralty, to discover a northwest passage to the Pacific. With provision for three years he left Greenland, and was last seen July 26, 1845, near the western outlet of Baffin Bay. Fourteen years later a private expedition found a record of the voyage of discovery; Franklin had sailed through Lancaster Sound, Barrow Strait, southward through Peel and Franklin Straits, and had almost found M'Clintock Strait, which would have led him through to the Pacific. He died June 11, 1847, and the rest of his party perished while trying to work south by land.]

"O, whither sail you, Sir John Franklin?" Cried a whaler in Baffin's Bay.

"To know if between the land and the Pole

I may find a broad sea-way."

"I charge you back, Sir John Franklin, As you would live and thrive;

For between the land and the frozen Pole No man may sail alive."

The snow came down, storm breeding storm,

And on the decks was laid,
Till the weary sailor, sick at heart,
Sank down beside his spade.

"Sir John, the night is black and long, The hissing wind is bleak,

The hard, green ice is strong as death;—
I prithee, Captain, speak!"

"The night is neither bright nor short,
The singing breeze is cold;-
The ice is not so strong as hope;
The heart of man is bold!"

80

"O think you, good Sir John Franklin, We'll ever see the land?

'Twas cruel to send us here to starve, Without a helping hand.

""Twas cruel, Sir John, to send us here, So far from help or home, 131 To starve and freeze on this lonely sea: I ween the lords of the Admiralty Would rather send than come."

"Oh! whether we starve to death alone, Or sail to our own country,

We have done what man has never done-
The truth is found, the secret won-
We passed the Northern Sea!"

(1856)

SKIPPER IRESON'S RIDE

JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER

[Based on a story of Marblehead which Whittier heard in his boyhood. Its historicity, how. ever, has been denied, and he said that the ballad should be thought of as "pure fancy."]

Of all the rides since the birth of time,
Told in story or sung in rhyme,-
On Apuleius's Golden Ass,1

Or one-eyed Calender's horse of brass,
Witch astride of a human back,
Islam's prophet on Al-Borák,—

The strangest ride that ever was sped Was Ireson's, out from Marblehead! Old Floyd Ireson, for his hard heart, Tarred and feathered and carried in a cart

By the women of Marblehead!

ΙΟ

By the women of Marblehead! Fathoms deep in dark Chaleur That wreck shall lie forevermore. Mother and sister, wife and maid, Looked from the rocks of Marblehead Over the moaning and rainy sea,Looked for the coming that might not

be! 50 What did the winds and the sea-birds say Of the cruel captain who sailed away?Old Floyd Ireson, for his hard heart, Tarred and feathered and carried in a cart

By the women of Marblehead! Through the street, on either side, Up flew windows, doors swung wide; Sharp-tongued spinsters, old wives gray, Treble lent the fish-horn's bray. Sea-worn grandsires, cripple-bound, Hulks of old sailors run aground, Shook head, and fist, and hat, and cane, And cracked with curses the hoarse refrain:

60

[Jewish legendry was full of stories connecting King Solomon with magical powers, cabalistic symbols, etc. On one of these legends the present poem is based. The Pentagraph (more properly Pentagram) was a five-pointed design like a star, credited with mystic significance.]

King Solomon stood, in his crown of gold,

Between the pillars, before the altar In the House of the Lord. And the King was old,

And his strength began to falter, So that he leaned on his ebony staff, Sealed with the seal of the Pentagraph.

For he leaned on his ebony staff upright; And over his shoulders the purple robe; And his hair and his beard were both snow-white,

And the fear of him filled the globe; So that none dared touch him, though he was dead,

He looked so royal about the head.

2 Oracle. See I Kings, 6: 19-28.

3 See Psalm 45: 8-13; Exodus, 28:33: I Kings, 7: 18-19.

When he awoke, it was already night; The church was empty, and there was no light,

Save where the lamps, that glimmered few and faint,

Lighted a little space before some saint. He started from his seat and gazed around,

But saw no living thing and heard no sound.

He groped towards the door, but it was locked;

He cried aloud, and listened, and then knocked,

30 And uttered awful threatenings and complaints,

And imprecations upon men and saints. The sounds reëchoed from the roof and walls

As if dead priests were laughing in their stalls.