Meaning of 'flawed'

[Cleocima]

Can anyone explain exactly what Robert Service meant in the line: Never a track in the white ice-pack that humped and heaved and flawed,
(For what it's worth my guess is something like 'tottered')

[Quizmonster]

'Flaw' used as a verb - as in your quote - means 'to crack'.

[Cleocima]

Thank you for your reply. I'm not too happy with the overall sense, but I suppose it could mean it cracked the ice.

[Quizmonster]

The quote just means that, as the ice heaved, it cracked or fissured in places, which is surely precisely what one would expect it to do! Although it is uncommon nowadays - when it is generally an adjective meaning not quite right - the verb-form 'flaw' has meant 'to crack' since the 1600s.

[Cleocima]

Thank you once again

[Scylax]

Can I join in here, please ? Not to answer the
question posed, because as noted 'flaw' means
'crack' or 'splinter', but to note, with pleasure, that
Robert Service is still being read and appreciated.

Maybe, Cleocima, your taste in poetry would be also
served by:

'The Definitive Edition of Rudyard Kipling's Verse',
'The Island' by Francis Brett Young, and
'An English War' by Dorothy L. Sayers.

[Cleocima]

Thank you Scylax. I've appreciated Robert Service for longer than I care to remember. Tennyson is my favourite though.
I'll try to find time for the ones you mention, but as I spend so much time on the cursed internet these days poetry has become neglected.