Of That Blithe Throat of Thine

Of that blithe throat of thine from arctic bleak and blank,
I’ll mind the lesson, solitary bird--let me too welcome chilling drifts,
E’en the profoundest chill, as now--a torpid pulse, a brain unnerv’d,
Old age land-lock’d within its winter bay--(cold, cold, O cold!)
These snowy hairs, my feeble arm, my frozen feet,
For them thy faith, thy rule I take, and grave it to the last;
Not summer’s zones alone--not chants of youth, or south’s warm tides alone,
But held by sluggish floes, pack’d in the northern ice, the cumulus
of years,
These with gay heart I also sing.