Analysis of Ultima Thule: Dedication to G. W. G.

With favoring winds, o'er sunlit seas,
   We sailed for the Hesperides,
   The land where golden apples grow;
   But that, ah! that was long ago.
   How far, since then, the ocean streams
   Have swept us from that land of dreams,
   That land of fiction and of truth,
   The lost Atlantis of our youth!
   Whither, ah, whither? Are not these
  The tempest-haunted Orcades,
  Where sea-gulls scream, and breakers roar,
   And wreck and sea-weed line the shore?

Ultima Thule! Utmost Isle!
  Here in thy harbors for a while
  We lower our sails; a while we rest
  From the unending, endless quest.