And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.

-Bible (Old Testament)
Numbers 21:9.

I have climbed to the top of the greasy pole.

-Disraeli, Benjamin, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield
  On becoming Prime Minister.

Midwinter Spring is its own season Sempiternal though sodden towards sundown, Suspended in time, between pole and tropic.

-Eliot,T(homas) S(tearns)
  Four Quartets,'Little Gidding', pt.1.