To a Distant Lady

1895

Bold sailors yet, through frozen seas,
Attempt to reach the northern pole.
They quit their friends and home and ease
To conquer the unconquered goal.

A less heroic errantry —
Silvia! It is my chief endeavor
To reach your heart, though round it I,
For all I know, may cruise forever.

I've now been held these winters two,
Bound in the ice of your disdain.
Could but I break a passage through
I'd not ask to come south again.

— New York Tribune.