The seal yelp
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o,There's not a soulFor a wind-breakBetween me and the North Pole-- Except always John-Joe,My French Indian Esquimaux,And he's off setting traps,In one himself perhaps. Give a head shakeOver so much bayThrown awayIn snow and mistThat doesn't exist,I was going to say,For God, man or beast's sake,Yet does perhaps for all three. Don't ask JoeWhat it is to him.It's sometimes dimWhat it is to me,Unless it beIt's the old captain's dark fateWho failed to find or force a straitIn its two-thousand-mile coast;And his crew left him where he failed,And nothing came of all he sailed. It's to say, "You and I"To such a ghost,"You and IOff hereWith the dead race of the Great Auk!"And, "Better defeat almost,If seen clear,Than life's victories of doubtThat need endless talk talkTo make them out."
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