The Arctic Queen - A Poem Dedicated to Elisha Kent Kane, in Search of Sir John Franklin

Anonymous

• Publisher: Ragged Hand
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781528719520
• eBook ISBN: 9781528792578
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Historical Biographies
• Index: Literature

In 1845, British Royal Navy officer and Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin (1786–1847) embarked on his third and final expedition into the Canadian Arctic to force the Northwest Passage. After two years with no word, a £20,000 reward was offered to anyone who could find the expedition, leading to many rescue attempts. Two such attempts were undertaken by Elisha Kent Kane (1820–1857), American explorer and United States Navy medical officer. Despite contracting scurvy and suffering greatly during his 1853 attempt, he continued on and went further north than any other explorer had managed. Kane was eventually forced to relinquish the icebound brig "Advance" on May 20, 1855 and spent the next 83 days marching against all odds to Upernavik carrying the invalids—losing but one man on the perilous journey. This volume contains a poem dedicated to Kane's courageous efforts to rescue the Franklin expedition, republished now by Ragged Hand in a brand new edition complete with an introductory biography of Sir John Franklin by John Know Loughton.

THE ARCTIC QUEEN

PART FIRST

Oene, of all the chilly Arctics, queen,

Ascended to her everlasting throne

Built on the steadfast centre of the world,

And waited for the middle hour of night,

Now swiftly coming, to convene her court.

Set in an ocean of perpetual calm

Was the fair island honoured by her reign;

Slowly around her rolled the Frigid Zone,

Dim in the mystic moonlight far away,—

A silvery ring, circling her nearer realm

With the pale lustre of its snowy walls,

Defending from all storm and sudden change

The sea which bathed the island's level shores.

She sat upon her throne, and none might tell

Whether her limbs the lambent lustre cast

Upon the pearls of which it was composed,

Or they cast beauty on her glowing form.

Around her feet a pavement spread, inlaid

Of squares of roseate sea-shells, set about

With purple gems, unknown in other lands;—

Thence, winding paths, sprinkled with golden sand,

Ran out, through bowers of flowers and fields of green

To meet the sea.

Low in the South the Moon

Shone full against the island. The North-star,

Sparkling and blazing like a silver sun,

Stood at the Zenith, as a lamp hung out

From heaven to charm the endless Arctic night;—

And thus a soft profusion of pure light,

More exquisite than sunshine, fell abroad.

Unnipped by daintiest frosts, in every field

Flowers crowded thick; and trees, not tall nor rude,

With slender stems upholding feathery shade,

Nodded their heads and hung their pliant limbs

In natural bowers, sweet with delicious gloom.

Queen Oene sent her luminous glance afar:

Fine rays of tintless light played round her head,

Crowning her beauty with mysterious glory.

She gazed away, beyond the tranquil sea,

To distant mountains of unchanging snow,

And still beyond, to where full many a tower

And fortress reared their walls of gleaming ice

On the dim verges of her vast domains.

Scarcely had she in silence throned herself,

Ere from the trees, o...

Table of contents

• SIR JOHN FRANKLIN
• PART FIRST
• PART SECOND
• PART THIRD