Classic Poem

I' Man old man, I'm eighty-three,
I seldom get away;
My work, it keeps me close at home —
I have no time for play.
If it were not for the journey back,
That so fatigues a soul,
I'd like to take a little trip —
I never have seen the Pole.

'Tis said that in that favored place
There is no heat or drouth;
And that, whichever way you turn,
You're looking south-by-south.
Some say there is a flagstaff there,
Some say there is a hole.
Think of the years that I have lived
And never have seen the Pole!

The parson a hundred times is right —
We ought to stay at home.
I'Man old man, I'm eighty-three,
I have no call to roam.
And yet if I could somehow find
The time — God bless my soul! —
I think that I would die content
If I only could see the Pole!

My brother has seen Baraboo,
If so he speak the truth;
My wife and son they both have been
As far as to Duluth;
My cousin cruised to Eastport, Maine,
On a ship that carried coal;
I've been as far as Mackinac —
But I never have seen the Pole!