Zinzendorff and Other Poems/Moravian Missions to Greenland

4049318Zinzendorff and Other PoemsMoravian Missions to Greenland1836Lydia Huntley Sigourney


MORAVIAN MISSIONS TO GREENLAND.


Why steers yon bold adventurous prow
    On toward the arctick zone,
Defying blasts that rudely seal
    To Ocean's breast like stone?
Why dare her crew those fearful seas
    Where icy mountains dash,
And make the proudest ship a wreck
    With one tremendous crash?

They come, who seek the spirit's gold,
    They dare yon dreary sphere,
And winter startles on his throne,
    Their strain of praise to hear:
They come, Salvation's lamp to light
    Where frost and darkness reign,
And with a deathless joy to cheer
    The sons of want and pain.

And lo! the chapel rears its head
    Beneath those stranger-skies,
And to the sweet-ton'd Sabbath-bell
    The thick-ribb'd ice replies,

The unletter'd Esquimaux doth pluck
    The victory from the tomb,
And grateful seek that glorious clime
    Where flowers forever bloom.

When the last tinge of green departs,
    The last bird takes its flight,
And the far sun no beam bestows
    On that long polar night,
When in her subterranean cell
    To shun the tempest's ire,
Life shrinking guards her pallid flame
    That feebly lifts its spire,

The teachers of a love divine,
    That firm, devoted band,
With no weak sigh of fond regret
    Recall their father-land,
The unchanging smile that lights their brow,
    While storms of Winter roar,
Doth better prove their heaven-born Faith
    Than Learning's loftiest lore.