Geosonnet 8

The sunset lion, as Britannia aged

Survived, with every man, the frigid waste.

Industrial hostility upstaged

The sanctity of souls, their wreck encased

In icy seas and grinding floes made cold

By deep Antarctic circumpolar flow.

Dark isolation froze this land, how old

Are continental glaciers, ceaseless snow?

Six desp'rate heroes sailed the Scotia Sea

Dead arc, live backarc ridge beneath their keel

Tectonic forces pulled their goal to lea,

Deflected currents, begat their ordeal.

  Endurance sank, endurance overcame

  Asylum, dawn, and cause were all the same.

Geology 41 947

Geology 42 299

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