Then Came the Morning

The Ice King was one of a set of songs written in 1903 by Captain Gerald S. Doorly and chief engineer John D. Morrison of the English ship “Morning.” I take the voyage of the “Morning” as a symbol for industrialization and colonization–the arrival of mankind in earth’s most inhospitable environment heralding mankind’s already-begun march toward making the rest of the planet equally inhospitable. The original song that I quote extensively here expresses assurance that the brave explorers on the “Discovery” would be protected in their voyage through a place not made for humans–reigned over by the eponymous “Ice King”–little knowing that their posterity might find refuge at that pole as global temperatures rise and equatorial regions become utterly unlivable.