Page:Poems Jackson.djvu/235

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THE SIGN OF TH DAISY.
171
AN ARCTIC QUEST.
O PROUDLY name their names who bravely sail
To seek brave lost in Arctic snows and seas!
Bring money and bring ships, and on strong knees
Pray prayers so strong that not one word can fail
To pierce God's listening heart!
To pierce God's listening heart!Rigid and pale,
The lost men's bodies, waiting, drift and freeze;
Yet shall their solemn dead lips tell to these
Who find them secrets mighty to prevail
On farther, darker, icier seas.
On farther, darker, icier seas.I go
Alone, unhelped, unprayed-for. Perishing
For years in realms of more than Arctic snow,
My heart has lingered.
My heart has lingered.Will the poor dead thing
Be sign to guide past bitter flood and floe,
To open sea, some strong heart triumphing?


THE SIGN OF THE DAISY.
ALL summer she scattered the daisy leaves;
They only mocked her as they fell.
She said: "The daisy but deceives;
There is no virtue in its spell.
'He loves me not,' 'he loves me well,'
One story no two daisies tell."