Stan Rogers - Northwest Passage Lyrics
Cho: Ah, for just one time I would take the Northwest PassageTo find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea;Tracing one warm line through a land so wild and savageAnd make a Northwest Passage to the sea.Westward from the Davis Strait 'tis there 'twas said to lieThe sea route to the Orient for which so many died;Seeking gold and glory, leaving weathered, broken bonesAnd a long-forgotten lonely cairn of stones.Three centuries thereafter, I take passage overlandIn the footsteps of brave Kelso, where his "sea of flowers" beganWatching cities rise before me, then behind me sink againThis tardiest explorer, driving hard across the plain.And through the night, behind the wheel, the mileage clicking westI think upon Mackenzie, David Thompson and the restWho cracked the mountain ramparts and did show a path for meTo race the roaring Fraser to the sea.How then am I so different from the first men through this way?Like them, I left a settled life, I threw it all away.To seek a Northwest Passage at the call of many menTo find there but the road back home again.
