Page:Songs, Legends, and Ballads.djvu/73

Rh Within the current's northward stream;
 * But, ere the long day's close,

We found the whales and filled the ship
 * Amid the friendly floes.

"Then came a rest: the day was blown
 * Like a cloud before the night;

In the South the sun went redly down—
 * In the North rose another light,

Neither sun nor moon, but a shooting dawn,
 * That silvered our lonely way;

It seemed we sailed in a belt of gloom,
 * Upon either side, a day.

The north wind smote the sea to death;
 * The pack-ice closed us round—

The Narwhale stood in the level fields
 * As fast as a ship aground.

A weary time it was to wait.
 * And to wish for spring to come,

With the pleasant breeze and the blessed sun,
 * To open the way toward home.