The Pole

(Tune: "Carcassonne.")

I'm an 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'm an 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!