| Down In The South Where The Blizzards Blow Down in The South, where the blizzards blow, four men struggled along in the snow; Bowers, Wilson, and Captain Scott, they could walk, but Oates could not. Slower and slower, day by day, they dragged the sled on which he lay; each man thought but none would say, 'But for Oates we might get away'. |
| People who know me know what I think of this world, and the people in it, and in my opinion the story behind this poem is simply one of the very few exceptions that prove the rule. I don't like the sentiments implied in the poem, and there is no record of these men expressing the thought in the last line. All five (Capt. Evans had died in February) of the men on this expedition died with dignity and honour, and my inclusion of this poem here does not mean I agree with it. |
| "I am just going outside, and may be some time" |
| On March 16, 1912, on his 32nd birthday, in the middle of a howling blizzard, suffering from extreme frostbite and barely able to walk, Captain Lawrence Oates spoke the above words and left the tent occupied by himself and his companions on their trek back from the South Pole. He knew full well the consequences of his actions, and he walked to his death in order that his (relatively) healthier, stronger compatriots might survive the journey back to base camp. |
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They didn't. A mere ten miles from safety all members of Captain R.F. Scott's Antarctic expidition perished. The last entry in any of the diaries discovered with the frozen bodies was dated 13 days after Oates' sacrifice.. The poem is NOT taken from any of those diaries, and although one commentator has said he believes it is the unspoken thoughts of the men involved, my opinion is that that is a load of nonsense. |
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