A SONG OF THE ENGLISH There's never an ebb goes seaward now If blood be the price of admiralty, Lord God, we ha' paid it in! We must feed our sea for a thousand years, As it was when they sailed with the Golden Hind, Or the wreck that lies on the spouting reef If blood be the price of admiralty, THE DEEP-SEA CABLES The wrecks dissolve above us; their dust drops down from afar Down to the dark, to the utter dark, where the blind white sea-snakes are. There is no sound, no echo of sound, in the deserts of the deep, Or the great gray level plains of ooze where the shellburred cables creep. Here in the womb of the world-here on the tie-ribs of earth Words, and the words of men, flicker and flutter and beat Warning, sorrow and gain, salutation and mirth— For a Power troubles the Still that has neither voice nor feet. They have wakened the timeless Things; they have killed their father Time; Joining hands in the gloom, a league from the last of the sun. Hush! Men talk to-day o'er the waste of the ultimate slime, And a new Word runs between: whispering, "Let us be one!" THE SONG OF THE SONS One from the ends of the earth-gifts at an open doorTreason has much, but we, Mother, thy sons have more! From the whine of a dying man, from the snarl of a wolf-pack freed, Turn, and the world is thine. Mother, be proud of thy seed! Count, are we feeble or few? Hear, is our speech so rude? Look, are we poor in the land? Judge, are we men of The Blood? A SONG OF THE ENGLISH Those that have stayed at thy knees, Mother, go them in We that were bred overseas wait and would speak with our kin. call Not in the dark do we fight-haggle and flout and gibe; Selling our love for a price, loaning our hearts for a bribe. Gifts have we only to-day-Love without promise or fee Hear, for thy children speak, from the uttermost parts of the sea! THE SONG OF THE CITIES BOMBAY Royal and Dower-royal, I the Queen Fronting thy richest sea with richer handsA thousand mills roar through me where I glean All races from all lands. CALCUTTA Me the Sea-captain loved, the River built, Hail, England! I am Asia-Power on silt, MADRAS Clive kissed me on the mouth and eyes and brow, Wonderful kisses, so that I became Crowned above Queens-a withered beldame now, Brooding on ancient fame. Hail, Mother! RANGOON Do they call me rich in trade? Little care I, but hear the shorn priest drone, And watch my silk-clad lovers, man by maid, Laugh 'neath my Shwe Dagon. Hail, Mother! SINGAPORE East and West must seek my aid Ere the spent gear may dare the ports afar. The second doorway of the wide world's trade Is mine to loose or bar. Hail, Mother! HONG-KONG Hold me fast; my Praya sleeps Under innumerable keels to-day. Yet guard (and landward), or to-morrow sweeps Thy war-ships down the bay! HALIFAX Into the mist my guardian prows put forth, A SONG OF THE ENGLISH QUEBEC AND MONTREAL Peace is our portion. Yet a whisper rose, VICTORIA From East to West the circling word has passed, CAPE TOWN Hail! Snatched and bartered oft from hand to hand, Greeting! MELBOURNE Nor fear nor favour won us place, Got between greed of gold and dread of drouth, Loud-voiced and reckless as the wild tide-race That whips our harbour-mouth! SYDNEY Greeting! My birth-stain have I turned to good; Forcing strong wills perverse to steadfastness: The first flush of the tropics in my blood, And at my feet Success! |