Or A Short Summary the Heroic Era of British Antarctic Exploration

Poetry by Helen Paul

Image by Bob Champoux

When men were men they starved and died
Or froze or larked about and made
Adventures, fraught with science, merely to have tried

At tasks that no one yet claimed the pride
Of being first to do. When the shade
Of winter’s winter died Light found the men’s wide
Shoulders harnessed, twitching to be off. They were paid
With little more than having tried

To do the nearly inconceivable beside
Men made brothers by the blade
Of cold and sometimes hunger. Seals died

To feed the dogs. Penguins were examined, hide
And feather, sleds hauled and hauled up killing grade,
Muscles sublimated. Their stalwart souls two years were tried Before the lads could catch the tide
For home. Those shaken, kippered, scurvied, men that made
The voyage home were briefly pictured best of breed beside the men who starved and died
For the glory of adventures made solely to have tried.

Helen Paul works for the United States Antarctic Program at McMurdo Station. When she is not in Antactica, she lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Image: Vince's Cross at Hut Point, Bob Champoux

Fri 10 Feb 2006