Genre:

Poetry

Subjects:

Exploration, Navigation, Romanticism, Natural History, Ornithology

    An introductory note explains that 'More than 83^o north—about a good day's steaming distance to the Pole by one of our fast oceaners in clear water—Greely heard the song of a single bird merrily sounding over the desolation' (264n.), and the following poem, which describes the 'arctic bleak and blank', celebrates not only the 'solitary bird', but also the 'welcome chilling drifts' and 'sluggish floes, pack'd in the Northern ice, the cumulus of years', of which, the poet exclaims, 'with gay heart I also sing' (264).

Reprinted:

Whitman 1891