From the first light ray
To the midnight clear
Can we carve a way
Through this white frontier
How the frostbite mangles, blackened fingers all
Sailors round their candles share their bitter thrall
Grasp your boots and shovels, hundred miles or so
Teeth rattle like raindrops, on and on it goes
From the first light ray
To the midnight clear
Can we carve a way
Through this white frontier
Some, we send you westward, marching toward the sun
Some into the south-lands, where the rivers run
Maybe somewhere Eastern, Moscow can't be far
Bring us back some hope boys, lest we cross the bar
From the first light ray
To the midnight clear
Can we carve a way
Through this white frontier
From the first light ray
To the midnight clear
Are we doomed to stay
In this white frontier
(Now the waters have turned)
Should have left with the birds
As the ice advances
Heaven, when they find us, angels at our ease
Left behind our statues on the frozen seas
Once a shapely vessel, now a charnel house
Drag her back to England, lay our bodies down
Will they ever know
Of our last goodbye
In the cold and dark
Of the crushing night
From the first light ray
To the midnight clear
When we fought with God
Through this white frontier