Gambol her flocks of seals and walruses;

While, like a drift, her dog—a Polar bear—

Lies by her, glowering through his shaggy hair.

VI

O wondrous house, built by supernal hands

In vague and ultimate lands!

Thy architects were behemoth wind and cloud,

That, laboring loud,

Mountained thy world foundations and uplifted

Thy skyey bastions drifted

[25]

Of piled eternities of ice and snow;

Where storms, like ploughmen, go,

Ploughing the deeps with awful hurricane;

Where, spouting icy rain,

The huge whale wallows; and through furious hail

Th' explorer's tattered sail

Drives like the wing of some terrific bird,

Where wreck and famine herd.—

Home of the red Auroras and the gods!

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