Why

Why is it Alaskans all come back         When they've quit this land for good?     Why is it that no man stays away         When he's sworn to his friends he would?     Where lies the grip this country hath         All tangled around the heart     That takes a grip that can never slip         And can never be torn apart?     Is it the lure of the summer sunshine         That goes to the head like wine?     Is it the lure of the far flung meadows         Of the shadowy scented pine?     Is it the lure of going where none have gone         Of just being alone in the wild?     Is it the lure of the ancient glaciers         That were old when Christ was a child?     They come here wild, athirst for gold         They would win and run away,     They lose the stake they brought along         And then they have to stay.     Here each one follows his own bent,         The mines, the hills, the mart,     Work's but a name, the end's the same,         The country steals your heart.     There's a lure to the land of the poppy,         There's a lure to the land of your birth,     You swear you abhor it, and yet you'll long for it         As no other land on this earth.     There's the lure of the snow mantled vastness,         There's the lure of each valley and hill,     Of friends that you've met, that you'll never forget         And you'll want to come back, and you will.