224 LONGFELLOW
So far I live to the northward,
From the harbour of Skeringes-hale, If you only sailed by day With a fair wind all the way,
More than a month would you sail.
I own six hundred reindeer,
With sheep and swine beside; I have tribute from the Finns, Whalebone and reindeer-skins, And ropes of walrus-hide.
I ploughed the land with horses, But my heart was ill at ease,
For the old seafaring men
Came to me now and then,
With their sagas of the seas;
Of Iceland and of Greenland, And the stormy Hebrides,
And the undiscovered deep;
I could not eat nor sleep For thinking of those seas.
To the northward stretched the desert,
How far I fain would know; So at last I sallied forth, And three days sailed due north, As far as the whale-ships go.
To the west of me was the ocean, To the right the desolate shore, But I did not slacken sail For the walrus or the whale, Till after three days more.
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