The Icelandic Canadian - 01.10.1942, Blaðsíða 7

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
3
possible for us to orient our Norse heritage in the New World of
Tomorrow.
The following verse, quoted from memory, and with due thanks to
the unknown author, speaks for the Past in a grand and flaming chal-
lenge to the Future. Our Past and our Future! Norse blood to Norse
blood, quick with deathless adventure!
Leif was a man’s name—
Over the great white shoulder
Of the World he came;
Into a land as distant as a star
That God had set aside
For mortals not to mar;
Too vast for men—
Not till Leif’s sons
Set foot upon the moon
Shall such a deed as his
Be done again!
Laura Goodman Salverson
--★-
Poem
“I think I’ll be a goat”, said I,
“I’m sad among the sheep
And surely goats need never try
To look before they leap.
“And goats may roam and gobble life
While sheep have only nibbles,
And goats don’t have internal strife
O’er conscientious quibbles.”
A goat I was, but sad to state
A sorry goat was I;
I’d been a sheep too long a date
The change to satisfy.
I found my leap was just a hop,
My song a quavering bleat;
The rocks upon the mountain top
Were hard, they hurt my feet.
Advice to her who would be goat
Is short but very deep;
If you can’t be a joyful goat
For God’s sake girl, stay sheep.