With the vast pool of heaven star-spawned, Afar and agleam, like a valley of dream, Still mocks you a Land of Beyond. Thank God! there is always a Land of Beyond For us who are true to the trail; A vision to seek, a beckoning peak, A farness that never will fail; A pride in our soul that mocks at a goal, A manhood that irks at a bond, And try how we will, unattainable still, Behold it, our Land of Beyond! Sunshine I Flat as a drum-head stretch the haggard snows; The mighty skies are palisades of light; The stars are blurred; the silence grows and grows; Vaster and vaster vaults the icy night. Here in my sleeping-bag, I cower and pray: "Silence and night, have pity! stoop and slay." I have not slept for many, many days. I close my eyes with weariness -- that's all. I still have strength to feed the drift-wood blaze, That flickers weirdly on the icy wall. I still have strength to pray: "God rest her soul, Here in the awful shadow of the Pole." There in the cabin's alcove low she lies, Still candles gleaming at her head and feet; All snow-drop white, ash-cold, with closed eyes, Lips smiling, hands at rest -- O God, how sweet! How all unutterably sweet she seems... Not dead, not dead indeed -- she dreams, she dreams. II "Sunshine", I called her, and she brought, I vow, God's blessed sunshine to this life of mine. I was a rover, of the breed who plough Life's furrow in a far-flung, lonely line; The wilderness my home, my fortune cast In a wild land of dearth, barbaric, vast. When did I see her first? Long had I lain