54 great opening lines: 50

I am to break into the conversation
With a word that tastes like snow to say;
I am to interrupt the contemplation
Of the familiar headlines of the day –
Horses, divorces, politics, murders –
With a word cold to hear or look at,
Colder to speak.

The Fire on the Snow, Douglas Stewart

*****

A play written for radio:  the story of Captain Robert Scott’s expedition to the South Pole, reaching it only to find that Amundsen had beaten him.