Stephen Leacock "Arctic Expedition of 'The Neptune"

Arctic Expedition of “The Neptune”

under Commander A. P. Low to Hudson Straits, August 22, 1903

While we welter

In the swelter 
Of the pestilential heat 
Drinking Sodas in Pagodas 
At the corner of the Street,

It seems to me 
That it would be 
My highest aspiration

To sail away 
On a Holiday 
Of Arctic Exploration.

Let me lie in my pajamas on the ice Of Baffin's Bay, 
In the thinnest of chemises, where the Polar breezes play, 
Underneath a frozen awning let me lie at ease a span, 
While beneath the bright Aurora roars the ventilation fan. 

Can you wonder now that Nansen,

and that Peary and that Low 
Should wander forth, And struggle north,

As far as they can go?

When the hero

Under zero 
Lives on frozen lager beer

And a demi-can 
Of Pemmican, 
You need not shed a tear.

He seeks a higher latitude,

I quite admit the feat;

The reason is a platitude,

He's crazy with the heat.

Stephen Leacock  Canadian writer, 1869-1944 

Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen, crossed Greenland 1888, and travelled "farthest north" in 1895, almost reaching the North Pole.  Later he was a statesman, humanitarian and Nobel prize winner (1922).

US Rear Admiral Robert Peary is credited with being first to arrive at the geographic North Pole in 1909.

learn more about A.P. Low  at http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic39-3-274.pdf