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66 And he's off setting traps, In one himself perhaps.

Give a head shake Over so much bay Thrown away In snow and mist That doesn't exist, I was going to say, For God, man or beast's sake, Yet does perhaps for all three.

Don't ask Joe What it is to him. It's sometimes dim What it is to me, Unless it be It's the old captain's dark fate Who failed to find or force a strait In its two-thousand-mile coast; And his crew left him where he failed, And nothing came of all he sailed.

It's to say, "You and I" To such a ghost, "You and I Off here With the dead race of the Great Auk!" And, "Better defeat almost, If seen clear, Than life's victories of doubt That need endless talk talk To make them out."