s: So we plunged the hand to the mid-wrist deep


s: In a cinnamon stew of the fat-tailed sheep,


s: We cleansed our beards of the mutton-grease,


s: We lay on the mats and were filled with peace,


s: And the talk slid north, and the talk slid south,


s: With the sliding puffs from the hookah-mouth.


s: Four things greater than all things are, --


s: We spake of them all, but the last the most,


s: Of a shifty promise, an unsheathed sword


s: And a gray-coat guard on the Helmund ford.


s: In the fashion of one who is weaving lies.


s: Quoth he:  "Of the Russians who can say?


s: When the night is gathering all is gray.


s: But we look that the gloom of the night shall die


s: In the morning flush of a blood-red sky.


s: But no man knoweth the mind of the King.


s: And the colt bred close to the vice of each,


s: For he carried the curse of an unstanched speech.


s: To the line where the gray-coat squadrons are.


s: Saw naught, said naught, and -- did not die!


s: He harked to rumour, and snatched at a breath


s: Of `this one knoweth' and `that one saith', --


s: Of a gray-coat coming, and sack of the South.


s: With each new spring and the winter grass.


s: The King held talk with his Chief in War.


s: And what he had heard of the coming spoke.


s: "Then Gholam Hyder, the Red Chief, smiled,


s: But those who would laugh restrained their breath,


s: When the face of the King showed dark as death.


s: And he said to the boy:  `They shall praise thy zeal


s: So long as the red spurt follows the steel.


s: Great is thy prudence -- await them, thou.


s: Watch from the tree.  Thou art young and strong,


s: A guard was set that he might not flee --


s: The peach-bloom fell in showers of snow,


s: When he shook at his death as he looked below.


s: By the power of God, who alone is great,


s: Till the seventh day he fought with his fate.


s: He mowed in the branches as ape and bear,


s: And last as a sloth, ere his body failed,


s: And he hung as a bat in the forks, and wailed,


s: And he fell, and was caught on the points and died.


s: But no man knoweth the mind of the King.


s: When the night is gathering all is gray.


s: And since we know not how War may prove,


s: Heart of my heart, let us talk of Love!"


s: The wreath of banquet overnight lay withered on the neck,


s: Our hands and scarfs were saffron-dyed for signal of despair,


s: When we went forth to Paniput to battle with the _Mlech_, --


s: Ere we came back from Paniput and left a kingdom there.


s: Thrice thirty thousand men were we to force the Jumna fords --


s: The hawk-winged horse of Damajee, mailed squadrons of the Bhao,


s: Stark levies of the southern hills, the Deccan's sharpest swords,


s: Thrice thirty thousand men were we before the mists had cleared,


s: We rolled upon them like a flood and washed their ranks away.


s: The children of the hills of Khost before our lances ran,


s: We drove the black Rohillas back as cattle to the pen;


s: 'Twas then we needed Mulhar Rao to end what we began,


s: A thousand men had saved the charge; he fled the field with ten!


s: There was no room to clear a sword -- no power to strike a blow,


s: Brought down the horse and rider and we trampled them and passed.


s: To left the roar of musketry rang like a falling flood --


s: To right the sunshine rippled red from redder lance and blade --


s: Above the dark _Upsaras_* flew, beneath us plashed the blood,


s: And, bellying black against the dust, the Bhagwa Jhanda swayed.


s: I saw it fall in smoke and fire, the banner of the Bhao;


s: I heard a voice across the press of one who called in vain: --


s: "Ho! Anand Rao Nimbalkhur, ride!  Get aid of Mulhar Rao!


s: Thereat, as when a sand-bar breaks in clotted spume and spray --


s: When rain of later autumn sweeps the Jumna water-head,


s: Before their charge from flank to flank our riven ranks gave way;


s: I held by Scindia, my lord, as close as man might hold;


s: A Soobah of the Deccan asks no aid to guard his life;


s: I held by Scindia -- my lance from butt to tuft was dyed,


s: And clung to Scindia, and I turned a sword-cut from the twain.


s: (He set a spell upon the maid in woodlands long ago,


s: A hunter by the Tapti banks she gave him water there:


s: He turned her heart to water, and she followed to her woe.


s: What need had he of Lalun who had twenty maids as fair?)


s: Across the reeling wreck of strife we rode as shadows ride


s: From Paniput to Delhi town, but not alone were we.


s: 'Twas Lutuf-Ullah Populzai laid horse upon our track,


s: A swine-fed reiver of the North that lusted for the maid;


s: I might have barred his path awhile, but Scindia called me back,


s: And  I -- O woe for Scindia! -- I listened and obeyed.


s: Noon's eye beheld that shame of flight, the shadows fell, we fled


s: I gasped: -- "A kingdom waits my lord; her love is but her own.


s: A day shall mar, a day shall cure for her, but what for thee?


s: Cut loose the girl:  he follows fast.  Cut loose and ride alone!"


s: "Of all who ate my bread last night 'twas she alone that came


s: To seek her love between the spears and find her crown therein!


s: One shame is mine to-day, what need the weight of double shame?


s: If once we reach the Delhi gate, though all be lost, I win!"


s: And still we heard the Populzai and still we strained anew,


s: And Delhi town was very near, but nearer was the foe.


s: Yea, Delhi town was very near when Lalun whispered: -- "Slay!


s: And turning as she fell we heard the clattering Populzai.


s: Our Gods were kind.  Before he heard the maiden's piteous scream


s: A log upon the Delhi road, beneath the mare he lay --


s: Lost mistress and lost battle passed before him like a dream;


s: The darkness closed about his eyes -- I bore my King away.


s: How he met with his fate and the V.P.P.*


s: _* Value Payable Parcels Post:  in which the Government


s: His sword and his Snider were bossed with gold,


s: And the Peacock Banner his henchmen bore


s: Was stiff with bullion, but stiffer with gore.


s: He shot at the strong and he slashed at the weak


s: From the Salween scrub to the Chindwin teak:


s: "The patriot fights for his countryside!"


s: But little they cared for the Native Press,


s: Who tramped through the jungle and camped in the byre,


s: Who died in the swamp and were tombed in the mire,


s: Who gave up their lives, at the Queen's Command,


s: For the Pride of their Race and the Peace of the Land.


s: Now, first of the foemen of Boh Da Thone


s: There were lads from Galway and Louth and Meath


s: Who went to their death with a joke in their teeth,


s: And worshipped with fluency, fervour, and zeal


s: The mud on the boot-heels of "Crook" O'Neil.


s: And ever their quarry would vanish away,


s: Till the sun-dried boys of the Black Tyrone


s: Took a brotherly interest in Boh Da Thone:


s: And, sooth, if pursuit in possession ends,


s: The Boh and his trackers were best of friends.


s: The word of a scout -- a march by night --


s: A rush through the mist -- a scattering fight --


s: A volley from cover -- a corpse in the clearing --


s: The glimpse of a loin-cloth and heavy jade earring --


s: The flare of a village -- the tally of slain --


s: And. . .the Boh was abroad "on the raid" again!


s: They cursed their luck, as the Irish will,


s: They gave him credit for cunning and skill,


s: They buried their dead, they bolted their beef,


s: And started anew on the track of the thief


s: Till, in place of the "Kalends of Greece", men said,


s: "When Crook and his darlings come back with the head."


s: They had hunted the Boh from the hills to the plain --


s: He doubled and broke for the hills again:


s: They had crippled his power for rapine and raid,


s: They had routed him out of his pet stockade,


s: And at last, they came, when the Day Star tired,


s: A black cross blistered the Morning-gold,


s: And the body upon it was stark and cold.


s: The high grass bowed her plumes to the blast.


s: And out of the grass, on a sudden, broke


s: Was blessed with a slug in the ulnar-bone --


s: (Now a slug that is hammered from telegraph-wire


s: Is a thorn in the flesh and a rankling fire.)


s: The shot-wound festered -- as shot-wounds may


s: The left arm throbbed, and the Captain swore,


s: "I'd like to be after the Boh once more!"


s: "I'd give a hundred to look at his head!"


s: The Hospital punkahs creaked and whirred,


s: He thought of the cane-brake, green and dank,


s: That girdled his home by the Dacca tank.


s: He thought of his wife and his High School son,


s: He thought -- but abandoned the thought -- of a gun.


s: And swindled the cartmen of half their pay.


s: And the months went on, as the worst must do,


s: But the Captain had quitted the long-drawn strife,


s: With hair like the sunshine and heart of gold,


s: And little she knew the arms that embraced


s: Had cloven a man from the brow to the waist:


s: And little she knew that the loving lips


s: And the eye that lit at her lightest breath


s: Had glared unawed in the Gates of Death.


s: As a general rule, from an innocent Bride.)


s: And little the Captain thought of the past,


s: But slow, in the sludge of the Kathun road,


s: The Government Bullock Train toted its load.


s: Speckless and spotless and shining with _ghee_,


s: Then the lead-cart stuck, though the coolies slaved,


s: And the cartmen flogged and the escort raved;


s: And out of the jungle, with yells and squeals,


s: Pranced Boh Da Thone, and his gang at his heels!


s: The Snider's snarl and the carbine's crack,


s: To the blade that twanged on the locking-ring,


s: And the brown flesh blued where the bay'net kissed,


s: As the steel shot back with a wrench and a twist,


s: And the great white bullocks with onyx eyes


s: The Peacock Banner staggered and swayed.


s: And girded his ponderous loins for flight,


s: But Fate had ordained that the Boh should start


s: On a lone-hand raid of the rearmost cart,


s: And out of that cart, with a bellow of woe,


s: The Babu fell -- flat on the top of the Boh!


s: For years had Harendra served the State,


s: To the growth of his purse and the girth of his _p]^et_.


s: There were twenty stone, as the tally-man knows,


s: On the broad of the chest of this best of Bohs.


s: And twenty stone from a height discharged


s: Are bad for a Boh with a spleen enlarged.


s: Oh, short was the struggle -- severe was the shock --


s: He dropped like a bullock -- he lay like a block;


s: And the Babu above him, convulsed with fear,


s: Heard the labouring life-breath hissed out in his ear.


s: Turn now to Simoorie where, lapped in his ease,


s: The Captain is petting the Bride on his knees,


s: Where the _whit_ of the bullet, the wounded man's scream


s: Are mixed as the mist of some devilish dream --


s: Forgotten, forgotten the sweat of the shambles


s: Where the hill-daisy blooms and the gray monkey gambols,


s: From the sword-belt set free and released from the steel,


s: The Peace of the Lord is with Captain O'Neil.


s: Up the hill to Simoorie -- most patient of drudges --


s: The bags on his shoulder, the mail-runner trudges.


s: "For Captain O'Neil, _Sahib_.  One hundred and ten


s: (Their breakfast was stopped while the screw-jack and hammer


s: Tore waxcloth, split teak-wood, and chipped out the dammer;)


s: Open-eyed, open-mouthed, on the napery's snow,


s: With a crash and a thud, rolled -- the Head of the Boh!


s: And gummed to the scalp was a letter which ran: --


s: "Dear Sir, -- I have honour to send, _as you said_,


s: For final approval (see under) Boh's Head;


s: "Was took by myself in most bloody affair.


s: By High Education brought pressure to bear.


s: To mail V.P.P. (rupees hundred)  Please add


s: "Whatever Your Honour can pass.  Price of Blood


s: Much cheap at one hundred, and children want food;


s: "So trusting Your Honour will somewhat retain


s: True love and affection for Govt. Bullock Train,


s: As the rabbit is drawn to the rattlesnake's power,


s: As the smoker's eye fills at the opium hour,


s: As a horse reaches up to the manger above,


s: As the waiting ear yearns for the whisper of love,


s: From the arms of the Bride, iron-visaged and slow,


s: The Captain bent down to the Head of the Boh.


s: And e'en as he looked on the Thing where It lay


s: 'Twixt the winking new spoons and the napkins' array,


s: The freed mind fled back to the long-ago days --


s: The hand-to-hand scuffle -- the smoke and the blaze --


s: The forced march at night and the quick rush at dawn --


s: The banjo at twilight, the burial ere morn --


s: The stench of the marshes -- the raw, piercing smell


s: When the overhand stabbing-cut silenced the yell --


s: The oaths of his Irish that surged when they stood


s: Where the black crosses hung o'er the Kuttamow flood.


s: As a derelict ship drifts away with the tide


s: The Captain went out on the Past from his Bride,


s: Back, back, through the springs to the chill of the year,


s: When he hunted the Boh from Maloon to Tsaleer.


s: As the shape of a corpse dimmers up through deep water,


s: In his eye lit the passionless passion of slaughter,


s: And men who had fought with O'Neil for the life


s: Had gazed on his face with less dread than his wife.


s: For she who had held him so long could not hold him --


s: Though a four-month Eternity should have controlled him --


s: But watched the twin Terror -- the head turned to head --


s: The scowling, scarred Black, and the flushed savage Red --


s: The spirit that changed from her knowing and flew to


s: Some grim hidden Past she had never a clue to.


s: But It knew as It grinned, for he touched it unfearing,


s: And muttered aloud, "So you kept that jade earring!"


s: Then nodded, and kindly, as friend nods to friend,


s: "Old man, you fought well, but you lost in the end."


s: The visions departed, and Shame followed Passion: --


s: "He took what I said in this horrible fashion,


s: "_I'll_ write to Harendra!"  With language unsainted


s: The Captain came back to the Bride. . .who had fainted.


s: And this is a fiction?  No.  Go to Simoorie


s: And look at their baby, a twelve-month old Houri,


s: A pert little, Irish-eyed Kathleen Mavournin --


s: She's always about on the Mall of a mornin' --


s: And you'll see, if her right shoulder-strap is displaced,


s: This:  _Gules_ upon _argent_, a Boh's Head, _erased!_


s: The black shall mourn for hoof and hide,


s: For the wrong you have done to a chief of men,


s: That you cram my throat with the foul pig's flesh,


s: Their anchors down, by London town, the Three Great Captains lay;


s: And one was Lord of the Wessex coast and all the lands thereby,


s: And one was Master of the Thames from Limehouse to Blackwall,


s: And he was Captain of the Fleet -- the bravest of them all.


s: Their good guns guarded their great gray sides


s: When there came a certain trading-brig with news of a privateer.


s: I had no fear but the seas were clear as far as a sail might fare


s: But now he floated the Gridiron and now he flaunted the Jack.


s: I had stripped his hide for my hammock-side,


s: I had hove him down by the mangroves brown,


s: By two and three the flags blew free to lash the laughing air: --


s: Flying his pluck at our mizzen-truck for weft of Admiralty,


s: They dipped their noses deep in the sea,


s: They racked their stays and stanchions free


s: Till the bow-gun drooped like a lily tired


s: 'Twere well to rest for an hour or twain,


s: And the great stern-gun shot fair and true,


s: With the heave of the ship, to the stainless blue,


s: You can hear the hiss of the helpless ram,


s: As the White Whale faces the Thresher's ire


s: To bide in the heart of an eight-day clock


s: Lay bare as the paunch of the purser's sow,


s: "Captain, they hack us through and through;


s: We have emptied the bunkers in open sea,


s: Their shrapnel bursts where our coal should be."


s: And the blood and the bubbling steam ran forth,


s: And he answered, "Grapple her stern and bow.


s: They have asked for the steel.  They shall have it now;


s: As they rolled in the waist and heard the fight


s: They fought as they fought in Nelson's fleet;


s: They were stripped to the waist, they were bare to the feet,


s: To the cod and the corpse-fed conger-eel,


s: Seven men from all the world, back to Docks again,


s: Rolling down the Ratcliffe Road drunk and raising Cain:


s: Give the girls another drink 'fore we sign away --


s: We that took the _Bolivar_ out across the Bay!


s: We put out from Sunderland loaded down with rails;


s: We put back to Sunderland 'cause our cargo shifted;


s: We put out from Sunderland -- met the winter gales --


s: Seven days and seven nights to the Start we drifted.


s: Racketing her rivets loose, smoke-stack white as snow,


s: All the coals adrift adeck, half the rails below,


s: Leaking like a lobster-pot, steering like a dray --


s: Out we took the _Bolivar_, out across the Bay!


s: One by one the Lights came up, winked and let us by;


s: Mile by mile we waddled on, coal and fo'c'sle short;


s: Met a blow that laid us down, heard a bulkhead fly;


s: Left the _Wolf_ behind us with a two-foot list to port.


s: Trailing like a wounded duck, working out her soul;


s: Clanging like a smithy-shop after every roll;


s: Just a funnel and a mast lurching through the spray --


s: So we threshed the _Bolivar_ out across the Bay!


s: 'Felt her hog and felt her sag, betted when she'd break;


s: Wondered every time she raced if she'd stand the shock;


s: Heard the seas like drunken men pounding at her strake;


s: Hoped the Lord 'ud keep his thumb on the plummer-block.


s: Banged against the iron decks, bilges choked with coal;


s: Flayed and frozen foot and hand, sick of heart and soul;


s: Last we prayed she'd buck herself into judgment Day --


s: Hi! we cursed the _Bolivar_ knocking round the Bay!


s: O her nose flung up to sky, groaning to be still --


s: Up and down and back we went, never time for breath;


s: Then the money paid at Lloyd's caught her by the heel,


s: And the stars ran round and round dancin' at our death.


s: Aching for an hour's sleep, dozing off between;


s: 'Heard the rotten rivets draw when she took it green;


s: 'Watched the compass chase its tail like a cat at play --


s: That was on the _Bolivar_, south across the Bay.


s: Once we saw between the squalls, lyin' head to swell --


s: Mad with work and weariness, wishin' they was we --


s: Some damned Liner's lights go by like a long hotel;


s: Cheered her from the _Bolivar_ swampin' in the sea.


s: Then a grayback cleared us out, then the skipper laughed;


s: "Boys, the wheel has gone to Hell -- rig the winches aft!


s: Yoke the kicking rudder-head -- get her under way!"


s: So we steered her, pulley-haul, out across the Bay!


s: Just a pack o' rotten plates puttied up with tar,


s: In we came, an' time enough, 'cross Bilbao Bar.


s: Overloaded, undermanned, meant to founder, we


s: Euchred God Almighty's storm, bluffed the Eternal Sea!


s: Seven men from all the world, back to town again,


s: Rollin' down the Ratcliffe Road drunk and raising Cain:


s: Seven men from out of Hell.  Ain't the owners gay,


s: 'Cause we took the "Bolivar" safe across the Bay?


s: Bears witness to the truth, and Ao-Safai


s: Hath told the men of Gorukh.  Thence the tale


s: The Man of Sixty Spears, who held the Pass


s: That leads to Thibet, but to-day is gone


s: To seek his comfort of the God called Budh


s: The Silent -- showing how the Sickness ceased


s: Because of her who died to save the tribe.


s: Curved like a stallion's croup, from dusk to dawn,


s: And drums upon it with his heels, whereby


s: Is bred the neighing thunder in the hills.


s: Who was before all Gods, and made all Gods,


s: And presently will break the Gods he made,


s: Who give him milk-dry ewes and cheat his Priests,


s: Or leave his shrine unlighted -- as Er-Heb


s: And from the sky Taman beheld their sin.


s: He sent the Sickness out upon the hills,


s: The Red Horse Sickness with the iron hooves,


s: And the Red Horse snuffed thrice into the wind,


s: And the Red Horse stamped thrice upon the snow,


s: And the Red Horse went out across the rocks,


s: The ringing rocks that had no fear of him;


s: And downward, where the lean birch meets the snow,


s: And downward, where the gray pine meets the birch,


s: And downward, where the dwarf oak meets the pine,


s: Till at his feet our cup-like pastures lay.


s: That night, the slow mists of the evening dropped,


s: Dropped as a cloth upon a dead man's face,


s: And weltered in the Valley, bluish-white


s: Like water very silent -- spread abroad,


s: Is dammed to fill our cattle-troughs -- sent up


s: White waves that rocked and heaved and then were still,


s: Till all the Valley glittered like a marsh,


s: Beneath the moonlight, filled with sluggish mist


s: Knee-deep, so that men waded as they walked.


s: That night, the Red Horse grazed above the Dam,


s: Beyond the cattle-troughs.  Men heard him feed,


s: And those that heard him sickened where they lay.


s: Thus came the Sickness to Er-Heb, and slew


s: Ten men, strong men, and of the women four;


s: And the Red Horse went hillward with the dawn,


s: But near the cattle-troughs his hoof-prints lay.


s: Dropped as a cloth upon the dead, but rose


s: A little higher, to a young girl's height;


s: Till all the Valley glittered like a lake,


s: Beneath the moonlight, filled with sluggish mist.


s: That night, the Red Horse grazed beyond the Dam,


s: A stone's-throw from the troughs.  Men heard him feed,


s: And Ao-Safai was blocked with early snow,


s: We could not flee from out the Valley.  Death


s: Smote at us in a slaughter-pen, and Kysh


s: Was mute as Yabosh, though the goats were slain;


s: And the Red Horse grazed nightly by the stream,


s: And later, outward, towards the Unlighted Shrine,


s: And those that heard him sickened where they lay.


s: Then said Bisesa to the Priests at dusk,


s: When the white mist rose up breast-high, and choked


s: The voices in the houses of the dead: --


s: "Yabosh and Kysh avail not.  If the Horse


s: Reach the Unlighted Shrine we surely die.


s: Ye have forgotten of all Gods the Chief,


s: Taman!"  Here rolled the thunder through the Hills


s: "Ye have forgotten of all Gods the Chief


s: On Yabosh with the Sapphire 'twixt His knees,


s: And, being smitten of the Sickness, died


s: Before the altar of the Sapphire Shrine.


s: Then said Bisesa: -- "I am near to Death,


s: And have the Wisdom of the Grave for gift


s: To bear me on the path my feet must tread.


s: If there be wealth on earth, then I am rich,


s: If there be beauty on the earth," -- her eyes


s: Dropped for a moment to the temple floor, --


s: "Ye know that I am fair.  If there be love,


s: Ye know that love is mine."  The Chief in War,


s: The Man of Sixty Spears, broke from the press,


s: And would have clasped her, but the Priests withstood,


s: Saying: -- "She has a message from Taman."


s: Then said Bisesa: -- "By my wealth and love


s: Taman."  Here rolled the thunder through the Hills


s: And Kysh fell forward on the Mound of Skulls.


s: In darkness, and before our Priests, the maid


s: Between the altars cast her bracelets down,


s: Therewith the heavy earrings Armod made,


s: When he was young, out of the water-gold


s: Of Gorukh -- threw the breast-plate thick with jade


s: The bands of silver on her brow and neck;


s: And as the trinkets tinkled on the stones,


s: Then said Bisesa, stretching out her hands,


s: As one in darkness fearing Devils: -- "Help!


s: Taman hath called me -- whither shall I go?"


s: Howled in his torment, fettered by the Priests,


s: But dared not come to her to drag her forth,


s: And dared not lift his spear against the Priests.


s: Bent with a hundred winters, hairless, blind,


s: His seat was nearest to the altar-fires,


s: But, whether Kysh decreed, or from Taman


s: The impotent tongue found utterance we know


s: As little as the bats beneath the eaves.


s: He cried so that they heard who stood without: --


s: "To the Unlighted Shrine!" and crept aside


s: That night, the slow mists of the evening dropped,


s: Dropped as a cloth upon the dead, and rose


s: Above the roofs, and by the Unlighted Shrine


s: When murrain thins the cattle of Er-Heb:


s: And through the mist men heard the Red Horse feed.


s: In Armod's house they burned Bisesa's dower,


s: And killed her black bull Tor, and broke her wheel,


s: And loosed her hair, as for the marriage-feast,


s: With cries more loud than mourning for the dead.


s: Across the fields, from Armod's dwelling-place,


s: We heard Bisesa weeping where she passed


s: To seek the Unlighted Shrine; the Red Horse neighed


s: His hooves struck dead and heavy in our ears.


s: Out of the mists of evening, as the star


s: Of Ao-Safai climbs through the black snow-blur


s: To show the Pass is clear, Bisesa stepped


s: Upon the great gray slope of mortised stone,


s: The Causeway of Taman.  The Red Horse neighed


s: Behind her to the Unlighted Shrine -- then fled


s: North to the Mountain where his stable lies.


s: And watched that night above the clinging mists,


s: Fouled by a myriad bats, and black with time,


s: And twice she turned aside and twice she wept,


s: Cast down upon the threshold, clamouring


s: For him she loved -- the Man of Sixty Spears,


s: And for her father, -- and the black bull Tor,


s: Hers and her pride.  Yea, twice she turned away


s: Where Man is made the plaything of Taman,


s: An Eyeless Face that waits above and laughs.


s: But the third time she cried and put her palms


s: Against the hewn stone leaves, and prayed Taman


s: To spare Er-Heb and take her life for price.


s: They know who watched, the doors were rent apart


s: Broke like a flood across the Valley, washed


s: The thunder of Taman filled men with fear.


s: Some say that from the Unlighted Shrine she cried


s: And others that she sang and had no fear.


s: And some that there was neither song nor cry,


s: Perplexed with horror, crowding to the Shrine.


s: And when Er-Heb was gathered at the doors


s: The Priests made lamentation and passed in


s: To a strange Temple and a God they feared


s: Had thrust the altar-slabs apart, the walls


s: Were gray with stains unclean, the roof-beams swelled


s: With many-coloured growth of rottenness,


s: Bears witness to the truth, and Ao-Safai


s: Hath told the men of Gorukh.  Thence the tale


s: And her mother slept, and the Channel swept


s: And the child is dead.  Be still," she said,


s: And "Heard ye nothing, mother?" she said,


s: For why should the christened soul cry out


s: That it might not hurt from the cold or the dirt,


s: Have ye yet to learn the cry of the tern,


s: 'Tis the ache in your breast that broke your rest,


s: For the peace of my soul I must go," she said,


s: She came to the life she had missed by an hour,


s: But it would not feed and it would not heed,


s: Though she gave it her own child's name.


s: And the dead child dripped on her breast,


s: Because the caravans brought turquoises,


s: Because his life was sheltered by the King,


s: So that no man should maim him, none should steal,


s: Or break his rest with babble in the streets


s: And worshipped by the King; but, drunk with pride,


s: He wrote above the shrine:  "_Thus Gods are made,


s: And whoso makes them otherwise shall die._"


s: And all the city praised him. . . .  Then he died.


s: _Read here the story of Evarra -- man --


s: Because his life was threatened by the King,


s: So that all men despised him in the streets,


s: He hewed the living rock, with sweat and tears,


s: And reared a God against the morning-gold,


s: Because the city fawned to bring him back,


s: He carved upon the plinth:  "_Thus Gods are made,


s: And all the people praised him. . . .  Then he died.


s: Because his village was between the hills,


s: Because he smeared his cheeks with blood of ewes,


s: Smeared blood upon its cheeks, and wedged a shell


s: Above its brows for eyes, and gave it hair


s: Of trailing moss, and plaited straw for crown.


s: And all the village praised him for this craft,


s: And brought him butter, honey, milk, and curds.


s: Wherefore, because the shoutings drove him mad,


s: He scratched upon that log:  "_Thus Gods are made,


s: And whoso makes them otherwise shall die._"


s: _Read here the story of Evarra -- man --


s: Because his God decreed one clot of blood


s: Should swerve one hair's-breadth from the pulse's path,


s: And chafe his brain, Evarra mowed alone,


s: Rag-wrapped, among the cattle in the fields,


s: Counting his fingers, jesting with the trees,


s: Drove him to labour.  Out of dung and horns


s: Dropped in the mire he made a monstrous God,


s: Abhorrent, shapeless, crowned with plantain tufts,


s: And when the cattle lowed at twilight-time,


s: He dreamed it was the clamour of lost crowds,


s: And howled among the beasts:  "_Thus Gods are made,


s: Thereat the cattle bellowed. . . .  Then he died.


s: And found his own four Gods, and that he wrote;


s: What oaf on earth had made his toil God's law,


s: Till God said mocking:  "Mock not.  These be thine."


s: Then cried Evarra:  "I have sinned!" -- "Not so.


s: If thou hadst written otherwise, thy Gods


s: Had rested in the mountain and the mine,


s: And I were poorer by four wondrous Gods,


s: And thy more wondrous law, Evarra.  Thine,


s: Servant of shouting crowds and lowing kine."


s: Thereat, with laughing mouth, but tear-wet eyes,


s: They fought and they talked in the North and the South,


s: they talked and they fought in the West,


s: He dragged them all together by the horn an' hide an' feather,


s: An' all excipt the Donkey was agreeable to go.


s: Thin Noah spoke him fairly, thin talked to him sevarely,


s: An' thin he cursed him squarely to the glory av the Lord: --


s: But the wind was always failin', an' 'twas most onaisy sailin',


s: An' the ladies in the cabin couldn't stand the stable air;


s: An' the bastes betwuxt the hatches, they tuk an' died in batches,


s: For he heard a flusteration 'mid the bastes av all creation --


s: The trumpetin' av elephints an' bellowin' av whales;


s: An' he saw forninst the windy whin he wint to stop the shindy


s: The Divil wid a stable-fork bedivillin' their tails.


s: The Divil cursed outrageous, but Noah said umbrageous: --


s: "To what am I indebted for this tenant-right invasion?"


s: An' the Divil gave for answer: -- "Evict me if you can, sir,


s: For I came in wid the Donkey -- on Your Honour's invitation."


s: _Above the portico a flag-staff, bearing the Union Jack,


s: remained fluttering in the flames for some time, but ultimately


s: when it fell the crowds rent the air with shouts,


s: and seemed to see significance in the incident. -- DAILY PAPERS_.


s: The poor little street-bred people that vapour and fume and brag,


s: We may not speak of England; her Flag's to sell or share.


s: What is the Flag of England?  Winds of the World, declare!


s: The North Wind blew: -- "From Bergen my steel-shod vanguards go;


s: I chase your lazy whalers home from the Disko floe;


s: By the great North Lights above me I work the will of God,


s: "I barred my gates with iron, I shuttered my doors with flame,


s: Because to force my ramparts your nutshell navies came;


s: "The lean white bear hath seen it in the long, long Arctic night,


s: What is the Flag of England?  Ye have but my bergs to dare,


s: Ye have but my drifts to conquer.  Go forth, for it is there!"


s: "Strayed amid lonely islets, mazed amid outer keys,


s: But over the scud and the palm-trees an English flag was flown.


s: "My basking sunfish know it, and wheeling albatross,


s: Where the lone wave fills with fire beneath the Southern Cross.


s: What is the Flag of England?  Ye have but my reefs to dare,


s: Ye have but my seas to furrow.  Go forth, for it is there!"


s: "The reeling junks behind me and the racing seas before,


s: I raped your richest roadstead -- I plundered Singapore!


s: I set my hand on the Hoogli; as a hooded snake she rose,


s: "Never the lotus closes, never the wild-fowl wake,


s: Because on the bones of the English the English Flag is stayed.


s: "The desert-dust hath dimmed it, the flying wild-ass knows,


s: The scared white leopard winds it across the taintless snows.


s: What is the Flag of England?  Ye have but my sun to dare,


s: Ye have but my sands to travel.  Go forth, for it is there!"


s: They make my might their porter, they make my house their path,


s: "I draw the gliding fog-bank as a snake is drawn from the hole,


s: They bellow one to the other, the frighted ship-bells toll,


s: "But whether in calm or wrack-wreath, whether by dark or day,


s: I heave them whole to the conger or rip their plates away,


s: First of the scattered legions, under a shrieking sky,


s: Dipping between the rollers, the English Flag goes by.


s: What is the Flag of England?  Ye have but my breath to dare,


s: Ye have but my waves to conquer.  Go forth, for it is there!"


s: Help for a patriot distressed, a spotless spirit hurt,


s: Help for an honourable clan sore trampled in the dirt!


s: From Queenstown Bay to Donegal, O listen to my song,


s: The honourable gentlemen have suffered grievous wrong.


s: Cleared in the face of all mankind beneath the winking skies,


s: Her honourable gentlemen are cleared -- and this is how: --


s: They only paid the Moonlighter his cattle-hocking price,


s: They only helped the murderer with counsel's best advice,


s: They never told the ramping crowd to card a woman's hide,


s: By God, the boys that did the work were braver men than they!


s: They knew whom they were talking at, if they were Irish too,


s: The gentlemen that lied in Court, they knew, and well they knew.


s: They only took the Judas-gold from Fenians out of jail,


s: They only fawned for dollars on the blood-dyed Clanna-Gael.


s: "Cleared", honourable gentlemen!  Be thankful it's no more: --


s: The widow's curse is on your house, the dead are at your door.


s: On you the shame of open shame, on you from North to South


s: The hand of every honest man flat-heeled across your mouth.


s: And by the Judge's well-weighed word you cannot wipe it off.


s: Tell them it's tar that glistens so, and daub them yours again!


s: "The charge is old"? -- As old as Cain -- as fresh as yesterday;


s: Old as the Ten Commandments -- have ye talked those laws away?


s: If words are words, or death is death, or powder sends the ball,


s: What do they know of dread of death or hanging fear of harm?


s: The secret half a county keeps, the whisper in the lane,


s: The shriek that tells the shot went home behind the broken pane,


s: The dry blood crisping in the sun that scares the honest bees,


s: My soul!  I'd sooner lie in jail for murder plain and straight,


s: Pure crime I'd done with my own hand for money, lust, or hate,


s: Than take a seat in Parliament by fellow-felons cheered,


s: The other on your dress-shirt-front to show your heart is clane.


s: Now this is the tale of the Council the German Kaiser decreed,


s: The paper lay on the table, the strong heads bowed thereby,


s: And each one heard Her laughing as each one saw Her plain --


s: "There's a girl in Jersey City who works on the telephone;


s: We're going to hitch our horses and dig for a house of our own,


s: And over the German benches the bearded whisper ran: --


s: "Lager, der girls und der dollars, dey makes or dey breaks a man.


s: They passed one resolution: -- "Your sub-committee believe


s: Now this is the tale of the Council the German Kaiser held --


s: Now Tomlinson gave up the ghost in his house in Berkeley Square,


s: And a Spirit came to his bedside and gripped him by the hair --


s: A Spirit gripped him by the hair and carried him far away,


s: Though we called your friend from his bed this night,


s: For the race is run by one and one and never by two and two."


s: Then Tomlinson looked up and down, and little gain was there,


s: And Tomlinson took up his tale and spoke of his good in life.


s: "This I have read in a book," he said, "and that was told to me,


s: "Ye have read, ye have heard, ye have thought," he said,


s: There's little room between the stars in idleness to prate!


s: O none may reach by hired speech of neighbour, priest, and kin


s: The Spirit gripped him by the hair, and sun by sun they fell


s: They may burn or freeze, but they must not cease


s: there as the light of his own hearth-stone.


s: "That ye rank yoursel' so fit for Hell and ask no leave of me?


s: I am all o'er-sib to Adam's breed that ye should give me scorn,


s: The harm that ye did to the Sons of Men or ever you came to die."


s: The belly of a tortured star blood-red in Hell-Mouth light;


s: And Tomlinson looked down and down, and saw beneath his feet


s: The frontlet of a tortured star milk-white in Hell-Mouth heat.


s: "O I had a love on earth," said he, "that kissed me to my fall,


s: And if ye would call my love to me I know she would answer all."


s: -- "All that ye did in love forbid it shall be written fair,


s: But now ye wait at Hell-Mouth Gate and not in Berkeley Square:


s: The Wind that blows between the worlds, it cut him like a knife,


s: And Tomlinson took up the tale and spoke of his sin in life: --


s: Have ye sinned one sin for the pride o' the eye


s: Then Tomlinson he gripped the bars and yammered, "Let me in --


s: There's sore decline in Adam's line if this be spawn of earth."


s: Empusa's crew, so naked-new they may not face the fire,


s: As children rifle a caddis-case or the raven's foolish hoard.


s: Yet close we lie, and deep we lie, and if I gave him place,


s: My gentlemen that are so proud would flout me to my face;


s: They'd call my house a common stews and me a careless host,


s: And for that sin should ye come in were I the lord alone.


s: But sinful pride has rule inside -- and mightier than my own.


s: I'm all o'er-sib to Adam's breed that I should mock your pain,


s: But look that ye win to worthier sin ere ye come back again.


s: I know, through Thee, the blame is mine.


s: You have heard the beat of the off-shore wind,


s: You have heard the song -- how long! how long?


s: Ha' done with the Tents of Shem, dear lass,


s: It's North you may run to the rime-ringed sun,


s: Or East all the way into Mississippi Bay,


s: Where the blindest bluffs hold good, dear lass,


s: The days are sick and cold, and the skies are gray and old,


s: And I'd sell my tired soul for the bucking beam-sea roll


s: With her load-line over her hatch, dear lass,


s: There be triple ways to take, of the eagle or the snake,


s: But the fairest way to me is a ship's upon the sea


s: Can you hear the crash on her bows, dear lass,


s: See the shaking funnels roar, with the Peter at the fore,


s: And the derricks clack and grate, as the tackle hooks the crate,


s: And the fall-rope whines through the sheave;


s: O the mutter overside, when the port-fog holds us tied,


s: When foot by foot we creep o'er the hueless viewless deep


s: Till the Mouse swings green on the old trail,


s: And the Gull Light lifts on the Long Trail --


s: O the blazing tropic night, when the wake's a welt of light


s: Her plates are scarred by the sun, dear lass,


s: Then home, get her home, where the drunken rollers comb,


s: And the engines stamp and ring, and the wet bows reel and swing,


s: Yes, the old lost stars wheel back, dear lass,


s: Fly forward, O my heart, from the Foreland to the Start --


s: And it's twenty thousand mile to our little lazy isle


s: You have heard the call of the off-shore wind,


s: You have heard the song -- how long! how long?


s: The Lord knows what we may find, dear lass,


s: Fair is our lot -- O goodly is our heritage!


s: (Humble ye, my people, and be fearful in your mirth!)


s: He hath smote for us a pathway to the ends of all the Earth!


s: We were led by evil counsellors -- the Lord shall deal with them!


s: Hold ye the Faith -- the Faith our Fathers seal]\ed us;


s: Whoring not with visions -- overwise and overstale.


s: Of your children in their bondage shall He ask them treble-tale!


s: Keep ye the Law -- be swift in all obedience --


s: Clear the land of evil, drive the road and bridge the ford.


s: By the peace among Our peoples let men know we serve the Lord!


s: Hear now a song -- a song of broken interludes --


s: A song of little cunning; of a singer nothing worth.


s: As the singer knew and touched it in the ends of all the Earth!


s: Our brows are bound with spindrift and the weed is on our knees;


s: Our loins are battered 'neath us by the swinging, smoking seas.


s: From reef and rock and skerry -- over headland, ness, and voe --


s: The Coastwise Lights of England watch the ships of England go!


s: We bridge across the dark and bid the helmsman have a care,


s: The flash that wheeling inland wakes his sleeping wife to prayer;


s: The lover from the sea-rim drawn -- his love in English lanes.


s: We greet the clippers wing-and-wing that race the Southern wool;


s: We warn the crawling cargo-tanks of Bremen, Leith, and Hull;


s: To each and all our equal lamp at peril of the sea --


s: The white wall-sided war-ships or the whalers of Dundee!


s: Come up, come in from Eastward, from the guardports of the Morn!


s: Beat up, beat in from Southerly, O gipsies of the Horn!


s: Swift shuttles of an Empire's loom that weave us, main to main,


s: The Coastwise Lights of England give you welcome back again!


s: Go, get you gone up-Channel with the sea-crust on your plates;


s: Go, get you into London with the burden of your freights!


s: Haste, for they talk of Empire there, and say, if any seek,


s: The Lights of England sent you and by silence shall ye speak!


s: in the Barrens, the waste that betrayed them,


s: from the camp and the grave-mound they made them;


s: We were dreamers, dreaming greatly, in the man-stifled town;


s: We yearned beyond the sky-line where the strange roads go down.


s: Came the Whisper, came the Vision, came the Power with the Need,


s: Till the Soul that is not man's soul was lent us to lead.


s: Follow after -- follow after!  We have watered the root,


s: And the bud has come to blossom that ripens for fruit!


s: Follow after -- we are waiting, by the trails that we lost,


s: For the sounds of many footsteps, for the tread of a host.


s: Follow after -- follow after -- for the harvest is sown:


s: By the bones about the wayside ye shall come to your own!


s: 'Twixt seas unsailed and shores unhailed


s: We have fed our sea for a thousand years


s: Though there's never a wave of all her waves


s: We have strawed our best to the weed's unrest,


s: There's never a flood goes shoreward now


s: But slinks our dead on the sands forlore,


s: We must feed our sea for a thousand years,


s: As it was when they sailed with the _Golden Hind_,


s: Or the wreck that lies on the spouting reef


s: The wrecks dissolve above us; their dust drops down from afar --


s: Here in the womb of the world -- here on the tie-ribs of earth


s: Words, and the words of men, flicker and flutter and beat --


s: Warning, sorrow and gain, salutation and mirth --


s: For a Power troubles the Still that has neither voice nor feet.


s: Hush!  Men talk to-day o'er the waste of the ultimate slime,


s: And a new Word runs between:  whispering, "Let us be one!"


s: One from the ends of the earth -- gifts at an open door --


s: Treason has much, but we, Mother, thy sons have more!


s: Count, are we feeble or few?  Hear, is our speech so rude?


s: Look, are we poor in the land?  Judge, are we men of The Blood?


s: Those that have stayed at thy knees, Mother, go call them in --


s: We that were bred overseas wait and would speak with our kin.


s: Not in the dark do we fight -- haggle and flout and gibe;


s: Selling our love for a price, loaning our hearts for a bribe.


s: Gifts have we only to-day -- Love without promise or fee --


s: Fronting thy richest sea with richer hands --


s: A thousand mills roar through me where I glean


s: Me the Sea-captain loved, the River built,


s: Wealth sought and Kings adventured life to hold.


s: Hail, England!  I am Asia -- Power on silt,


s: Clive kissed me on the mouth and eyes and brow,


s: Crowned above Queens -- a withered beldame now,


s: Hail, Mother!  Do they call me rich in trade?


s: Little care I, but hear the shorn priest drone,


s: And watch my silk-clad lovers, man by maid,


s: Hail, Mother!  East and West must seek my aid


s: Ere the spent gear may dare the ports afar.


s: The second doorway of the wide world's trade


s: Hail, Mother!  Hold me fast; my Praya sleeps


s: Yet guard (and landward), or to-morrow sweeps


s: Into the mist my guardian prows put forth,


s: Peace is our portion.  Yet a whisper rose,


s: Foolish and causeless, half in jest, half hate.


s: From East to West the circling word has passed,


s: Till West is East beside our land-locked blue;


s: From East to West the tested chain holds fast,


s: Hail!  Snatched and bartered oft from hand to hand,


s: I dream my dream, by rock and heath and pine,


s: Of Empire to the northward.  Ay, one land


s: Greeting!  Nor fear nor favour won us place,


s: Got between greed of gold and dread of drouth,


s: Loud-voiced and reckless as the wild tide-race


s: Greeting!  My birth-stain have I turned to good;


s: Forcing strong wills perverse to steadfastness:


s: The first flush of the tropics in my blood,


s: The northern stirp beneath the southern skies --


s: Suffer a little, and my land shall rise,


s: Man's love first found me; man's hate made me Hell;


s: For my babes' sake I cleansed those infamies.


s: Earnest for leave to live and labour well,


s: Last, loneliest, loveliest, exquisite, apart --


s: On us, on us the unswerving season smiles,


s: Truly ye come of The Blood; slower to bless than to ban;


s: Little used to lie down at the bidding of any man.


s: Flesh of the flesh that I bred, bone of the bone that I bare;


s: Stark as your sons shall be -- stern as your fathers were.


s: Deeper than speech our love, stronger than life our tether,


s: But we do not fall on the neck nor kiss when we come together.


s: My arm is nothing weak, my strength is not gone by;


s: Sons, I have borne many sons, but my dugs are not dry.


s: Look, I have made ye a place and opened wide the doors,


s: That ye may talk together, your Barons and Councillors --


s: Ay, talk to your gray mother that bore you on her knees! --


s: That ye may talk together, brother to brother's face --


s: That Our House stand together and the pillars do not fall.


s: Draw now the threefold knot firm on the ninefold bands,


s: This for the Maple-leaf, and that for the southern Broom.


s: The Law that ye make shall be law and I do not press my will,


s: Because ye are Sons of The Blood and call me Mother still.


s: Now must ye speak to your kinsmen and they must speak to you,


s: After the use of the English, in straight-flung words and few.


s: Go to your work and be strong, halting not in your ways,


s: Balking the end half-won for an instant dole of praise.


s: Stand to your work and be wise -- certain of sword and pen,


s: Who are neither children nor Gods, but men in a world of men!


s: Mine was the woman to me, darkling I found her;


s: Hot rose her tribe on our track ere I had proved her;


s: Hearing her laugh in the gloom, greatly I loved her.


s: Swift through the forest we ran; none stood to guard us,


s: Few were my people and far; then the flood barred us --


s: Him we call Son of the Sea, sullen and swollen.


s: Panting we waited the death, stealer and stolen.


s: Yet ere they came to my lance laid for the slaughter,


s: Lightly she leaped to a log lapped in the water;


s: Holding on high and apart skins that arrayed her,


s: Called she the God of the Wind that He should aid her.


s: Life had the tree at that word (Praise we the Giver!)


s: Otter-like left he the bank for the full river.


s: Far fell their axes behind, flashing and ringing,


s: Wonder was on me and fear -- yet she was singing!


s: Low lay the land we had left.  Now the blue bound us,


s: Even the Floor of the Gods level around us.


s: Whisper there was not, nor word, shadow nor showing,


s: Till the light stirred on the deep, glowing and growing.


s: Then did He leap to His place flaring from under,


s: He the Compeller, the Sun, bared to our wonder.


s: Nay, not a league from our eyes blinded with gazing,


s: Cleared He the gate of the world, huge and amazing!


s: This we beheld (and we live) -- the Pit of the Burning!


s: Then the God spoke to the tree for our returning;


s: Back to the beach of our flight, fearless and slowly,


s: Back to our slayers went he:  but we were holy.


s: Men that were hot in that hunt, women that followed,


s: Babes that were promised our bones, trembled and wallowed:


s: Over the necks of the Tribe crouching and fawning --


s: Prophet and priestess we came back from the dawning!


s: Thus said The Lord in the Vault above the Cherubim


s: Calling to the Angels and the Souls in their degree:


s: That Our word may be established shall We gather up the sea?"


s: Loud sang the souls of the jolly, jolly mariners:


s: "Plague upon the hurricane that made us furl and flee!


s: Our bones we'll leave the barracout', and God may sink the sea!"


s: Then said the soul of Judas that betray]\ed Him:


s: "Lord, hast Thou forgotten Thy covenant with me?


s: And Ye take my day of mercy if Ye take away the sea!"


s: Then said the soul of the Angel of the Off-shore Wind:


s: (He that bits the thunder when the bull-mouthed breakers flee):


s: And Ye take mine honour from me if Ye take away the sea!"


s: "Nay, but we were angry, and a hasty folk are we!


s: Are we babes that we should clamour for a vengeance on the sea?"


s: Then said the souls of the slaves that men threw overboard:


s: "Kennelled in the picaroon a weary band were we;


s: Then cried the soul of the stout Apostle Paul to God:


s: "Once we frapped a ship, and she laboured woundily.


s: When they learned Thy Grace and Glory under Malta by the sea!"


s: Loud sang the souls of the jolly, jolly mariners,


s: Plucking at their harps, and they plucked unhandily:


s: May we lift a Deep-sea Chantey such as seamen use at sea?"


s: Then said the souls of the gentlemen-adventurers --


s: Fettered wrist to bar all for red iniquity:


s: Heave or sink it, leave or drink it, we were masters of the sea!"


s: Up spake the soul of a gray Gothavn 'speckshioner --


s: (He that led the flinching in the fleets of fair Dundee):


s: Will Ye whelm them all for wantonness that wallow in the sea?"


s: Crying:  "Under Heaven, here is neither lead nor lee!


s: Take back your golden fiddles and we'll beat to open sea!"


s: Then stooped the Lord, and He called the good sea up to Him,


s: And 'stablished his borders unto all eternity,


s: They may enter into galleons and serve Him on the sea.


s: Sun, wind, and cloud shall fail not from the face of it,


s: Stinging, ringing spindrift, nor the fulmar flying free;


s: Who heard the silly sailor-folk and gave them back their sea!


s: _Coastwise -- cross-seas -- round the world and back again --


s: Where the flaw shall head us or the full Trade suits --


s: Plain-sail -- storm-sail -- lay your board and tack again --


s: And that's the way we'll pay Paddy Doyle for his boots!_


s: When, manned by more than signed with us,


s: _Coastwise -- cross-seas -- round the world and back again,


s: Whither flaw shall fail us or the Trades drive down:


s: And all to bring a cargo up to London Town!_


s: Lord, Thou hast made this world below the shadow of a dream,


s: An', taught by time, I tak' it so -- exceptin' always Steam.


s: From coupler-flange to spindle-guide I see Thy Hand, O God --


s: Predestination in the stride o' yon connectin'-rod.


s: I cannot get my sleep to-night; old bones are hard to please;


s: I'll stand the middle watch up here -- alone wi' God an' these


s: My engines, after ninety days o' race an' rack an' strain


s: Through all the seas of all Thy world, slam-bangin' home again.


s: His wife's at Plymouth. . . .  Seventy --


s: Three turns for Mistress Ferguson. . .and who's to blame the man?


s: Since Elsie Campbell went to Thee, Lord, thirty years ago.


s: Not but they're ceevil on the Board.  Ye'll hear Sir Kenneth say:


s: To drink Madeira wi' three Earls -- the auld Fleet Engineer,


s: That started as a boiler-whelp -- when steam and he were low.


s: I mind the time we used to serve a broken pipe wi' tow.


s: Thirty an' more.  What I ha' seen since ocean-steam began


s: Leaves me no doot for the machine:  but what about the man?


s: The man that counts, wi' all his runs, one million mile o' sea:


s: It scoughed the skipper on his way to jock wi' the saloon.


s: The couples kittlin' in the dark between the funnel stays;


s: Years when I raked the ports wi' pride to fill my cup o' wrong --


s: Blot out the wastrel hours of mine in sin when I abode --


s: An' waur than all -- my crownin' sin -- rank blasphemy an' wild.


s: I was not four and twenty then -- Ye wadna judge a child?


s: An ijjit grinnin' in a dream -- for shells an' parrakeets,


s: Till, off Sambawa Head, Ye mind, I heard a land-breeze ca',


s: Milk-warm wi' breath o' spice an' bloom:  "M'Andrew, come awa'!"


s: "Your mither's God's a graspin' deil, the shadow o' yoursel',


s: Got out o' books by meenisters clean daft on Heaven an' Hell.


s: They mak' Him in the Broomielaw, o' Glasgie cold an' dirt,


s: A jealous, pridefu' fetich, lad, that's only strong to hurt,


s: Ye'll not go back to Him again an' kiss His red-hot rod,


s: But swells the ripenin' cocoanuts an' ripes the woman's breast."


s: The Sin against the Holy Ghost? . . .  An' under all, our screw.


s: That storm blew by but left behind her anchor-shiftin' swell,


s: Thou knowest all my heart an' mind, Thou knowest, Lord, I fell.


s: Third on the _Mary Gloster_ then, and first that night in Hell!


s: Yet was Thy hand beneath my head, about my feet Thy care --


s: Fra' Deli clear to Torres Strait, the trial o' despair,


s: But when we touched the Barrier Reef Thy answer to my prayer!


s: We dared not run that sea by night but lay an' held our fire,


s: Ye mind that word?  Clear as our gongs -- again, an' once again,


s: When rippin' down through coral-trash ran out our moorin'-chain;


s: An' by Thy Grace I had the Light to see my duty plain.


s: Obsairve.  Per annum we'll have here two thousand souls aboard --


s: Maybe they steam from grace to wrath -- to sin by folly led, --


s: It isna mine to judge their path -- their lives are on my head.


s: Mine at the last -- when all is done it all comes back to me,


s: The fault that leaves six thousand ton a log upon the sea.


s: An' home again, the Rio run:  it's no child's play to go


s: Steamin' to bell for fourteen days o' snow an' floe an' blow --


s: The bergs like kelpies overside that girn an' turn an' shift


s: An' yet I like the wark for all we've dam' few pickin's here --


s: No pension, an' the most we earn's four hunder pound a year.


s: Better myself abroad?  Maybe.  _I'd_ sooner starve than sail


s: Wi' such as call a snifter-rod _ross_. . .French for nightingale.


s: My Deeferential Valve-Gear taught me how that business lay,


s: I blame no chaps wi' clearer head for aught they make or sell.


s: _I_ found that I could not invent an' look to these -- as well.


s: So, wrestled wi' Apollyon -- Nah! -- fretted like a bairn --


s: But burned the workin'-plans last run wi' all I hoped to earn.


s: Ye know how hard an Idol dies, an' what that meant to me --


s: E'en tak' it for a sacrifice acceptable to Thee. . . .


s: Men, ay an' women, call me stern.  Wi' these to oversee


s: Ye'll note I've little time to burn on social repartee.


s: Romance!  Those first-class passengers they like it very well,


s: Printed an' bound in little books; but why don't poets tell?


s: To match wi' Scotia's noblest speech yon orchestra sublime


s: Whaurto -- uplifted like the Just -- the tail-rods mark the time.


s: Her time, her own appointed time, the rocking link-head bides,


s: Till -- hear that note? -- the rod's return


s: Interdependence absolute, foreseen, ordained, decreed,


s: To work, Ye'll note, at any tilt an' every rate o' speed.


s: While, out o' touch o' vanity, the sweatin' thrust-block says:


s: "Not unto us the praise, or man -- not unto us the praise!"


s: Now, a' together, hear them lift their lesson -- theirs an' mine:


s: Mill, forge an' try-pit taught them that when roarin' they arose,


s: Oh for a man to weld it then, in one trip-hammer strain,


s: Till even first-class passengers could tell the meanin' plain!


s: But no one cares except mysel' that serve an' understand


s: Eh, Lord!  They're grand -- they're grand!


s: Uplift am I?  When first in store the new-made beasties stood,


s: Ye've left a glimmer still to cheer the Man -- the Arrtifex!


s: But I ha' lived an' I ha' worked. 'Be thanks to Thee, Most High!


s: An' I ha' done what I ha' done -- judge Thou if ill or well --


s: Pilot so soon?  His flare it is.  The mornin'-watch is set.


s: Well, God be thanked, as I was sayin', I'm no Pelagian yet.


s: _'Morrn, Ferguson.  Man, have ye ever thought


s: I snatched their toil to serve my needs --


s: We've drunk to the Queen -- God bless her! --


s: They passed with their old-world legends --


s: Our heart's where they rocked our cradle,


s: And our faith and our hope and our honour


s: To the Sons of the Golden South (Stand up!),


s: Let a fellow sing o' the little things he cares about,


s: If a fellow fights for the little things he cares about


s: And the children nine and ten (Stand up!),


s: To the growl of the sluicing stamp-head --


s: To the night, to the palms in the moonlight,


s: Last toast -- and your foot on the table! --


s: A health to the Native-born (Stand up!),


s: All bound to sing o' the little things we care about,


s: All bound to fight for the little things we care about


s: By the might of our cable-tow (Take hands!),


s: All round the world (and a little loop to pull it by),


s: All round the world (and a little strap to buckle it),


s: "Farewell, Romance!" the Lake-folk sighed;


s: Who paid good blows.  Romance, farewell!"


s: 'Twixt port and port.  Romance, good-bye!"


s: But passed with coach and guard and horn --


s: His oil-can soothed the worrying cranks,


s: Robed, crowned and throned, he wove his spell,


s: Where heart-blood beat or hearth-smoke curled,


s: When the _Baltic_ ran from the _Northern Light_


s: And the little blue fox he is bred for his skin


s: For when the _matkas_ seek the shore to drop their pups aland,


s: The great man-seal haul out of the sea, a-roaring, band by band;


s: The sealing-boats they filch that way at hazard year by year.


s: It was the sealer _Northern Light_, to the Smoky Seas she bore,


s: Slipping away to the Smoky Seas, three seal-thieves together!)


s: And at last she came to a sandy cove and the Baltic lay therein,


s: And lie for a rotting contraband on Vladivostock slip.)


s: And there's never a law of God or man runs north of Fifty-Three:


s: So go in peace to the naked seas with empty holds to fill,


s: The weeping fog rolled fold on fold the wrath of man to cloak,


s: But, as they heard or groan or word, they fired at the sound.


s: For one cried out on the Name of God, and one to have him cease,


s: Bracing his feet by chock and cleat for the rolling of the ships.


s: "The tides they'll go through Fundy Race but I'll go nevermore


s: Or watch the tall Fall steamer lights tear blazing up the Sound.


s: Sorrow is me, in a lonely sea and a sinful fight I fall,


s: So go in grace with Him to face, and an ill-spent life behind,


s: And I'll be good to your widows, Rube, as many as I shall find."


s: O men, put back your guns again and lay your rifles by,


s: The sea-pull drew them side by side, gunnel to gunnel laid,


s: Then Reuben Paine cried out again before his spirit passed:


s: And tell the Yoshiwara girls to burn a stick for him.


s: And you'll not weight him by the heels and dump him overside,


s: But carry him up to the sand-hollows to die as Bering died,


s: And make a place for Reuben Paine that knows the fight was fair,


s: And leave the two that did the wrong to talk it over there!"


s: And if the light shall lift aright to give your landfall plain,


s: North and by west, from Zapne Crest, ye raise the Crosses Twain.


s: Fair marks are they to the inner bay, the reckless poacher knows


s: What time the scarred see-catchie lead their sleek seraglios.


s: Ever in Yokohama port men tell the tale anew


s: When the _Baltic_ ran from the _Northern Light_


s: _And reports the derelict _Mary Pollock_ still at sea._


s: Bidding me eyeless wait upon his pleasure.


s: Whom now the currents con, the rollers steer --


s: Bone-bleached my decks, wind-scoured to the graining;


s: Answers the anguish of my beams' complaining.


s: That shriek and scrabble on the riven hatches!


s: Sobbing my heart out through the uncounted watches!


s: Mocking the prow that cannot hold one true!


s: Frets 'gainst his fellow, warring where to send me.


s: The mercy of the comber that shall end me.


s: Smokes round my head and freezes in the falling;


s: Folds me and fouls me, strake on strake upcrawling.


s: Strength on the deep, am bawd to all disaster --


s: And with a kiss betray her to my master!


s: To him and his, our peoples at their pier:


s: Cried out to God and murmured 'gainst His Wrath,


s: Because a sudden wind at twilight's hush


s: Had snapped her stem alone of all the bush.


s: And God, Who hears both sun-dried dust and sun,


s: Had pity, whispering to that luckless one,


s: "Sister, in that thou sayest We did not well --


s: What voices heardst thou when thy petals fell?"


s: And the Rose answered, "In that evil hour


s: A voice said, `Father, wherefore falls the flower?


s: And a voice answered, `Son, by Allah's will!'"


s: Then softly as a rain-mist on the sward,


s: "Sister, before We smote the dark in twain,


s: Ere yet the stars saw one another plain,


s: Time, Tide, and Space, We bound unto the task


s: That thou shouldst fall, and such an one should ask."


s: Whereat the withered flower, all content,


s: Died as they die whose days are innocent;


s: While he who questioned why the flower fell


s: Caught hold of God and saved his soul from Hell.


s: You couldn't pack a Broadwood half a mile --


s: You mustn't leave a fiddle in the damp --


s: _I_ travel with the cooking-pots and pails --


s: _I'm_ sandwiched 'tween the coffee and the pork --


s: And when the dusty column checks and tails,


s: You should hear me spur the rear-guard to a walk!


s: With my "_Pilly-willy-winky-winky popp!_"


s: So I keep 'em moving forward till they drop;


s: In the silence of the camp before the fight,


s: When it's good to make your will and say your prayer,


s: You can hear my _strumpty-tumpty_ overnight


s: And when the Thing that Couldn't has occurred,


s: Give me time to change my leg and go again.


s: With my "_Tumpa-tumpa-tumpa-tum-pa tump!_"


s: In the desert where the dung-fed camp-smoke curled


s: There was never voice before us till I led our lonely chorus,


s: I -- the war-drum of the White Man round the world!


s: By the bitter road the Younger Son must tread,


s: Ere he win to hearth and saddle of his own, --


s: 'Mid the riot of the shearers at the shed,


s: In the silence of the herder's hut alone --


s: In the twilight, on a bucket upside down,


s: Hear me babble what the weakest won't confess --


s: I am all that ever went with evening dress!


s: With my "_Tunk-a tunka-tunka-tunka-tunk!_"


s: So I rowel 'em afresh towards the Devil and the Flesh,


s: Till I bring my broken rankers home again.


s: Where the new-raised tropic city sweats and roars,


s: I have sailed with Young Ulysses from the quay


s: Till the anchor rumbled down on stranger shores.


s: He is taken in a snare that shall not fail,


s: He shall hear me singing strongly, till he die,


s: Like the shouting of a backstay in a gale.


s: Are you sick o' towns and men?  You must sign and sail again,


s: For it's "Johnny Bowlegs, pack your kit and trek!"


s: Through the gorge that gives the stars at noon-day clear --


s: Up the pass that packs the scud beneath our wheel --


s: Round the bluff that sinks her thousand fathom sheer --


s: Down the valley with our guttering brakes asqueal:


s: Where the trestle groans and quivers in the snow,


s: Where the many-shedded levels loop and twine,


s: So I lead my reckless children from below


s: Till we sing the Song of Roland to the pine.


s: So we ride the iron stallions down to drink,


s: Through the canyons to the waters of the West!


s: And the tunes that mean so much to you alone --


s: Common tunes that make you choke and blow your nose,


s: Vulgar tunes that bring the laugh that brings the groan --


s: I can rip your very heartstrings out with those;


s: With the feasting, and the folly, and the fun --


s: And the lying, and the lusting, and the drink,


s: And the merry play that drops you, when you're done,


s: To the thoughts that burn like irons if you think.


s: Here's a trifle on account of pleasure past,


s: Ere the wit that made you win gives you eyes to see your sin


s: Let the organ moan her sorrow to the roof --


s: I have told the naked stars the Grief of Man!


s: Let the trumpets snare the foeman to the proof --


s: I have known Defeat, and mocked it as we ran!


s: When I stand to jeer the fatted Soul of Things,


s: But the Song of Lost Endeavour that I make,


s: Is it hidden in the twanging of the strings?


s: But the word -- the word is mine, when the order moves the line


s: And the lean, locked ranks go roaring down to die.


s: Of the driven dust of speech I make a flame


s: And a scourge of broken withes that men let fall:


s: For the words that had no honour till I came --


s: By the wisdom of the centuries I speak --


s: To the tune of yestermorn I set the truth --


s: I, the joy of life unquestioned -- I, the Greek --


s: I, the everlasting Wonder Song of Youth!


s: So I draw the world together link by link:


s: Yea, from Delos up to Limerick and back!


s: The Liner she's a lady, an' she never looks nor 'eeds --


s: The Man-o'-War's 'er 'usband, an' 'e gives 'er all she needs;


s: But, oh, the little cargo-boats, that sail the wet seas roun',


s: They're just the same as you an' me a-plyin' up an' down!


s: Plyin' up an' down, Jenny, 'angin' round the Yard,


s: All the way by Fratton tram down to Portsmouth 'Ard;


s: Anythin' for business, an' we're growin' old --


s: Plyin' up an' down, Jenny, waitin' in the cold!


s: The Liner she's a lady by the paint upon 'er face,


s: An' if she meets an accident they count it sore disgrace:


s: The Man-o'-War's 'er 'usband, and 'e's always 'andy by,


s: But, oh, the little cargo-boats! they've got to load or die.


s: The Liner she's a lady, and 'er route is cut an' dried;


s: The Man-o'-War's 'er 'usband, an' 'e always keeps beside;


s: But, oh, the little cargo-boats that 'aven't any man,


s: The Liner she's a lady, and if a war should come,


s: The Man-o'-War's 'er 'usband, and 'e'd bid 'er stay at home;


s: But, oh, the little cargo-boats that fill with every tide!


s: 'E'd 'ave to up an' fight for them, for they are England's pride.


s: The Liner she's a lady, but if she wasn't made,


s: There still would be the cargo-boats for 'ome an' foreign trade.


s: The Man-o'-War's 'er 'usband, but if we wasn't 'ere,


s: 'E wouldn't have to fight at all for 'ome an' friends so dear.


s: 'Ome an' friends so dear, Jenny, 'angin' round the Yard,


s: All the way by Fratton tram down to Portsmouth 'Ard;


s: Anythin' for business, an' we're growin' old --


s: 'Ome an' friends so dear, Jenny, waitin' in the cold!


s: The fear was on the cattle, for the gale was on the sea,


s: I had been singin' to them to keep 'em quiet there,


s: For the lower deck is the dangerousest, requirin' constant care,


s: I see my chance was certain of bein' horned or trod,


s: An' by the terms of the Contract, as I have read the same,


s: If He got me to port alive I would exalt His Name,


s: An' praise His Holy Majesty till further orders came.


s: He saved me from the cattle an' He saved me from the sea,


s: But that were done by a stanchion, an' not by a bullock at all,


s: An' I lay still for seven weeks convalessing of the fall,


s: An' readin' the shiny Scripture texts in the Seaman's Hospital.


s: An' I spoke to God of our Contract, an' He says to my prayer:


s: "I never puts on My ministers no more than they can bear.


s: So back you go to the cattle-boats an' preach My Gospel there.


s: "For human life is chancy at any kind of trade,


s: I didn't want to do it, for I knew what I should get,


s: An' I wanted to preach Religion, handsome an' out of the wet,


s: I have been smit an' bruis]\ed, as warned would be the case,


s: An' turned my cheek to the smiter exactly as Scripture says;


s: But following that, I knocked him down an' led him up to Grace.


s: An' we have preaching on Sundays whenever the sea is calm,


s: An' I use no knife or pistol an' I never take no harm,


s: For the Lord abideth back of me to guide my fighting arm.


s: An' I sign for four-pound-ten a month and save the money clear,


s: An' I am in charge of the lower deck, an' I never lose a steer;


s: An' I believe in Almighty God an' preach His Gospel here.


s: For I am in charge of the lower deck with all that doth belong --


s: Heh!  Walk her round.  Heave, ah heave her short again!


s: Over, snatch her over, there, and hold her on the pawl.


s: Loose all sail, and brace your yards back and full --


s: Ready jib to pay her off and heave short all!


s: Well, ah fare you well; we can stay no more with you, my love --


s: Down, set down your liquor and your girl from off your knee;


s: Heh!  Walk her round.  Break, ah break it out o' that!


s: Break our starboard-bower out, apeak, awash, and clear.


s: Port -- port she casts, with the harbour-mud beneath her foot,


s: And that's the last o' bottom we shall see this year!


s: Well, ah fare you well, for we've got to take her out again --


s: Take her out in ballast, riding light and cargo-free.


s: So we'll pay you with the foresheet and a promise from the sea!


s: Heh!  Tally on.  Aft and walk away with her!


s: Handsome to the cathead, now; O tally on the fall!


s: Stop, seize and fish, and easy on the davit-guy.


s: Up, well up the fluke of her, and inboard haul!


s: Well, ah fare you well, for the Channel wind's took hold of us,


s: Choking down our voices as we snatch the gaskets free.


s: And she's snorting under bonnets for a breath of open sea,


s: Wheel, full and by; but she'll smell her road alone to-night.


s: Sick she is and harbour-sick -- O sick to clear the land!


s: Roll down to Brest with the old Red Ensign over us --


s: Carry on and thrash her out with all she'll stand!


s: Well, ah fare you well, and it's Ushant slams the door on us,


s: Whirling like a windmill through the dirty scud to lee:


s: There's a Legion that never was 'listed,


s: Our fathers they left us their blessing --


s: They taught us, and groomed us, and crammed;


s: But we've shaken the Clubs and the Messes


s: We've pearled on half-shares in the Bay,


s: We've laughed at the world as we found it --


s: When we're scuppered and left in the lurch.


s: And we're filed on our last little shelves,


s: Then a health (we must drink it in whispers)


s: Yes, a health to ourselves ere we scatter,


s: For the steamer won't wait for the train,


s: There dwells a wife by the Northern Gate,


s: She willed her sons to the white harvest,


s: She wills her sons to the wet ploughing,


s: But the lore of men that ha' dealt with men


s: But the faith of men that ha' brothered men


s: And the eyes o' men that ha' read wi' men


s: So what they ha' got by the skin o' their teeth


s: For she hears the heels of the dripping ghosts


s: Home, they come home from all the ports,


s: A light that shifts, a glare that drifts,


s: To our private taste, there is always something a little exotic,


s: Robin down the logging-road whistles, "Come to me!"


s: Spring has found the maple-grove, the sap is running free;


s: All the winds of Canada call the ploughing-rain.


s: Take the flower and turn the hour, and kiss your love again!


s: Under hot Constantia broad the vineyards lie --


s: Throned and thorned the aching berg props the speckless sky --


s: Slow below the Wynberg firs trails the tilted wain --


s: West away from Melbourne dust holidays begin --


s: They that mock at Paradise woo at Cora Lynn --


s: Through the great South Otway gums sings the great South Main --


s: Broom behind the windy town; pollen o' the pine --


s: Bell-bird in the leafy deep where the _ratas_ twine --


s: Fern above the saddle-bow, flax upon the plain --


s: Far and far our homes are set round the Seven Seas;


s: Woe for us if we forget, we that hold by these!


s: Unto each his mother-beach, bloom and bird and land --


s: Masters of the Seven Seas, oh, love and understand.


s: And all for the sake o' the songs he made.


s: They have sought him high, they have sought him low,


s: They have found him by the milk-white thorn


s: Their eyes were held that they might not see


s: The kine that grazed beneath the knowes,


s: "Now cease your song," the King he said,


s: Wi' blazon and spur and page and squire;


s: I ha' watched my arms the lee-long night,


s: Where five-score fighting men would flee.


s: "My lance is tipped o' the hammered flame,


s: My shield is beat o' the moonlight cold;


s: "And what should I make wi' a horse o' pride,


s: And what should I make wi' a sword so brown,


s: "And what should I make wi' blazon and belt,


s: And what should I do wi' page and squire


s: "They come wi' news of the groanin' earth,


s: "By the faith o' my soul, True Thomas," he said,


s: "And what care I for your row-foot earls,


s: To sing wi' the priests at the market-cross,


s: Or run wi' the dogs in the naked street.


s: "And some they give me the good red gold,


s: "And the song I sing for the counted gold


s: "If I come wi' a poor man's dole," he said,


s: "That you should ride while they must stand?


s: "Light down, light down from your horse o' pride,


s: And syne, if ye dare, ye shall 'noble me."


s: He has lighted down from his horse o' pride,


s: "Ere I rax your heart from your breast-bone!"


s: And the first least word the proud King heard,


s: "Oh, I see the love that I lost long syne,


s: And the next least word True Thomas made,


s: It garred the King take horse and brand.


s: "Oh, I hear the tread o' the fighting men,


s: And turned the song on the midmost string;


s: And the last least word True Thomas made,


s: He harpit his dead youth back to the King.


s: Sleep ye or wake? -- till the latter sleep


s: I ha' armed the earth beneath your heel,


s: And over your head I ha' dusked the sky.


s: "I ha' harpit ye up to the throne o' God,


s: I ha' harpit your midmost soul in three;


s: I ha' harpit ye down to the Hinges o' Hell,


s: And -- ye -- would -- make -- a Knight o' me!"


s: In the Neolithic Age savage warfare did I wage


s: For food and fame and woolly horses' pelt;


s: I was singer to my clan in that dim, red Dawn of Man,


s: And I sang of all we fought and feared and felt.


s: Yea, I sang as now I sing, when the Prehistoric spring


s: Made the piled Biscayan ice-pack split and shove;


s: And the troll and gnome and dwerg, and the Gods of Cliff and Berg


s: And I left my views on Art, barbed and tanged, below the heart


s: And I wiped my mouth and said, "It is well that they are dead,


s: For I know my work is right and theirs was wrong."


s: But my Totem saw the shame; from his ridgepole shrine he came,


s: And he told me in a vision of the night: --


s: "There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays,


s: Then the silence closed upon me till They put new clothing on me


s: Of whiter, weaker flesh and bone more frail;


s: And I stepped beneath Time's finger, once again a tribal singer


s: Still they skirmish to and fro, men my messmates on the snow,


s: When we headed off the aurochs turn for turn;


s: When the rich Allobrogenses never kept amanuenses,


s: And our only plots were piled in lakes at Berne.


s: Still a cultured Christian age sees us scuffle, squeak, and rage,


s: And the wildest dreams of Kew are the facts of Khatmandhu,


s: And the crimes of Clapham chaste in Martaban.


s: Here's my wisdom for your use, as I learned it when the moose


s: And the reindeer roared where Paris roars to-night: --


s: There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays,


s: Once, on a glittering ice-field, ages and ages ago,


s: Ung, a maker of pictures, fashioned an image of snow.


s: Fashioned the form of a tribesman -- gaily he whistled and sung,


s: Working the snow with his fingers.  _Read ye the Story of Ung!_


s: Thus do we carry our lances -- thus is a war-belt slung.


s: Lo! it is even as we are.  Glory and honour to Ung!"


s: Later he pictured an aurochs -- later he pictured a bear --


s: Pictured the sabre-tooth tiger dragging a man to his lair --


s: Pictured the mountainous mammoth, hairy, abhorrent, alone --


s: Out of the love that he bore them, scribing them clearly on bone.


s: Wroth was that maker of pictures -- hotly he answered the call:


s: "Hunters and fishers and trappers, children and fools are ye all!


s: No store of well-drilled needles, nor ouches of amber pale;


s: No new-cut tongues of the bison, nor meat of the stranded whale.


s: And the heart of the hairy Mammoth, thou sayest, they do not see,


s: Even to mammoth editions.  Gaily he whistled and sung,


s: Full thirty foot she towered from waterline to rail.


s: It cost a watch to steer her, and a week to shorten sail;


s: But, spite all modern notions, I found her first and best --


s: The only certain packet for the Islands of the Blest.


s: And they worked the old three-decker to the Islands of the Blest.


s: By ways no gaze could follow, a course unspoiled of Cook,


s: Per Fancy, fleetest in man, our titled berths we took


s: With maids of matchless beauty and parentage unguessed,


s: And a Church of England parson for the Islands of the Blest.


s: We asked no social questions -- we pumped no hidden shame --


s: We never talked obstetrics when the Little Stranger came:


s: We left the Lord in Heaven, we left the fiends in Hell.


s: We weren't exactly Yussufs, but -- Zuleika didn't tell.


s: No moral doubt assailed us, so when the port we neared,


s: The villain had his flogging at the gangway, and we cheered.


s: 'Twas fiddle in the forc's'le -- 'twas garlands on the mast,


s: For every one got married, and I went ashore at last.


s: I left 'em all in couples a-kissing on the decks.


s: I left the lovers loving and the parents signing cheques.


s: In endless English comfort by county-folk caressed,


s: I left the old three-decker at the Islands of the Blest!


s: That route is barred to steamers:  you'll never lift again


s: Our purple-painted headlands or the lordly keeps of Spain.


s: They're just beyond your skyline, howe'er so far you cruise


s: In a ram-you-damn-you liner with a brace of bucking screws.


s: Boom out the dripping oil-bags to skin the deep's unrest --


s: And you aren't one knot the nearer to the Islands of the Blest!


s: But when you're threshing, crippled, with broken bridge and rail,


s: Calm as the Flying Dutchman, from truck to taffrail dressed,


s: You'll see the old three-decker for the Islands of the Blest.


s: You'll see her tiering canvas in sheeted silver spread;


s: Unvexed by wind or weather like the candles round a shrine!


s: Hull down -- hull down and under -- she dwindles to a speck,


s: With noise of pleasant music and dancing on her deck.


s: All's well -- all's well aboard her -- she's left you far behind,


s: Her crew are babes or madmen?  Her port is all to make?


s: _She_'s taking tired people to the Islands of the Blest!


s: His hands are black with blood -- his heart


s: But, through the shift of mood and mood,


s: The drumming guns that -- have no doubts;


s: That checks him foolish -- hot and fond,


s: That leaves him, careless 'mid his dead,


s: He greets th' embarrassed Gods, nor fears


s: Good for a fortnight, am I?  The doctor told you?  He lied.


s: I shall go under by morning, and --  Put that nurse outside.


s: And you'll wish you held my record before it comes to your turn.


s: Master at two-and-twenty, and married at twenty-three --


s: Ten thousand men on the pay-roll, and forty freighters at sea!


s: Fifty years between 'em, and every year of it fight,


s: And now I'm Sir Anthony Gloster, dying, a baronite:


s: Ran 'em, or -- opened the bilge-cock, precisely as I was told.


s: And a big fat lump of insurance to cover the risk on the way.


s: The others they dursn't do it; they said they valued their life


s: And your mother saving the money and making a man of me.


s: We started the Red Ox freighters -- we've eight-and-thirty now.


s: But your mother came and warned me and I wouldn't liquor no more:


s: And the Lines were all beginning, and we all of us started fair,


s: Building our engines like houses and staying the boilers square.


s: But M'Cullough 'e wanted cabins with marble and maple and all,


s: And Brussels an' Utrecht velvet, and baths and a Social Hall,


s: And pipes for closets all over, and cutting the frames too light,


s: Then came the armour-contracts, but that was M'Cullough's side;


s: He was always best in the Foundry, but better, perhaps, he died.


s: And a quarter-million to credit, and I saved it all for you!


s: I thought -- it doesn't matter -- you seemed to favour your ma,


s: But you're nearer forty than thirty, and I know the kind you are.


s: But I stood you an education, an' what have you done for me?


s: The things I knew was proper you wouldn't thank me to give,


s: And the things I knew was rotten you said was the way to live.


s: But never the doctor's brougham to help the missus unload.


s: Weak, a liar, and idle, and mean as a collier's whelp


s: Nosing for scraps in the galley.  No help -- my son was no help!


s: You're saved from soiling your fingers, and if you have no child,


s: Grateful?  Oh, yes, I'm grateful, but keep her away from here.


s: And I've only you to trust to!  (O God, why ain't he a man?)


s: I'm sick o' the 'ole dam' business; I'm going back where I came.


s: 'Hundred and eighteen East, remember, and South just three.


s: Easy bearings to carry -- three South -- three to the dot;


s: But I gave M'Andrew a copy in case of dying -- or not.


s: And so you'll write to M'Andrew, he's Chief of the Maori Line;


s: Against the time you'd claim it, committin' your dad to the deep;


s: I've never asked 'im to dinner, but he'll see it out to the end.


s: Stiff-necked Glasgow beggar, I've heard he's prayed for my soul,


s: Ten thousand men on the pay-roll and forty freighters at sea!


s: He made himself and a million, but this world is a fleetin' show,


s: The only one you left me, O mother, the only one!


s: Harrer and Trinity College -- me slavin' early an' late --


s: Flesh o' my flesh, my dearie, for ever an' ever amen,


s: Mary, why didn't _you_ warn me?  I've allus heeded to you,


s: Excep' -- I know -- about women; but you are a spirit now;


s: An', wife, they was only women, and I was a man.  That's how.


s: An' a man 'e must go with a woman, as you could not understand;


s: But I never talked 'em secrets.  I paid 'em out o' hand.


s: _I_ believe in the Resurrection, if I read my Bible plain,


s: But I wouldn't trust 'em at Wokin'; we're safer at sea again.


s: I'll be content with my fountain, I'll drink from my own well,


s: And the water's splashin' hollow on the skin of the empty hold --


s: Full to her lower hatches and risin' steady.  Hark!


s: Speakin' in general, I 'ave tried 'em all,


s: The 'appy roads that take you o'er the world.


s: Speakin' in general, I 'ave found them good


s: For such as cannot use one bed too long,


s: But must get 'ence, the same as I 'ave done,


s: So long as we've our 'ealth to watch it all --


s: The different ways that different things are done,


s: An' men an' women lovin' in this world --


s: An' when they ain't, pretendin' they are good?


s: In cash or credit -- no, it aren't no good;


s: You 'ave to 'ave the 'abit or you'd die,


s: Unless you lived your life but one day long,


s: But drew your tucker some'ow from the world,


s: An' never bothered what you might ha' done.


s: But, Gawd, what things are they I 'aven't done?


s: I've turned my 'and to most, an' turned it good,


s: In various situations round the world --


s: For 'im that doth not work must surely die;


s: But that's no reason man should labour all


s: 'Is life on one same shift; life's none so long.


s: Therefore, from job to job I've moved along.


s: Pay couldn't 'old me when my time was done,


s: Till I 'ad dropped whatever 'twas for good,


s: An', out at sea, be'eld the dock-lights die,


s: An' met my mate -- the wind that tramps the world!


s: It's like a book, I think, this bloomin' world,


s: Which you can read and care for just so long,


s: But presently you feel that you will die


s: Unless you get the page you're readin' done,


s: But what you're after is to turn 'em all.


s: Gawd bless this world!  Whatever she 'ath done --


s: Excep' when awful long -- I've found it good.


s: So write, before I die, "'E liked it all!"


s: They knew 'e stole; 'e knew they knowed.


s: I'm 'ere in a ticky ulster an' a broken billycock 'at,


s: A-layin' on to the sergeant I don't know a gun from a bat;


s: Don't look so 'ard, for I 'aven't no card,


s: I done my six years' service.  'Er Majesty sez:  "Good-day --


s: A man o' four-an'-twenty that 'asn't learned of a trade --


s: Beside "Reserve" agin' him -- 'e'd better be never made.


s: I tried my luck for a quarter, an' that was enough for me,


s: 'Tisn't my fault if I dress when I 'alt --


s: The sergeant arst no questions, but 'e winked the other eye,


s: 'Oo would ha' thought I could carry an' port?


s: I took my bath, an' I wallered -- for, Gawd, I needed it so!


s: I smelt the smell o' the barricks, I 'eard the bugles go.


s: 'Oo said I knew when the _Jumner_ was due?


s: Rather too free with my fancies?  Wot -- me?


s: Next week I'll 'ave 'em fitted; I'll buy me a swagger-cane;


s: They'll let me free o' the barricks to walk on the Hoe again


s: In the name o' William Parsons, that used to be Edward Clay,


s: An' -- any pore beggar that wants it can draw my fourpence a day!


s: In learnin' the others their trade -- parade!


s: But drives 'em to cheat to get out o' the street


s: March!  The mud is cakin' good about our trousies.


s: Front! -- eyes front, an' watch the Colour-casin's drip.


s: Front!  The faces of the women in the 'ouses


s: Ain't the kind o' things to take aboard the ship.


s: Cheer!  An' we'll never march to victory.


s: Cheer!  An' we'll never live to 'ear the cannon roar!


s: An' you'll never see your soldiers any more!


s: Wheel!  Oh, keep your touch; we're goin' round a corner.


s: Time! -- mark time, an' let the men be'ind us close.


s: Lord! the transport's full, an' 'alf our lot not on 'er --


s: Cheer, O cheer!  We're going off where no one knows.


s: March!  The Devil's none so black as 'e is painted!


s: Cheer!  We'll 'ave some fun before we're put away.


s: 'Alt, an' 'and 'er out -- a woman's gone and fainted!


s: Cheer!  Get on -- Gawd 'elp the married men to-day!


s: Hoi!  Come up, you 'ungry beggars, to yer sorrow.


s: ('Ear them say they want their tea, an' want it quick!)


s: You won't have no mind for slingers, not to-morrow --


s: No; you'll put the 'tween-decks stove out, bein' sick!


s: 'Alt!  The married kit 'as all to go before us!


s: 'Course it's blocked the bloomin' gangway up again!


s: Cheer, O cheer the 'Orse Guards watchin' tender o'er us,


s: Keepin' us since eight this mornin' in the rain!


s: Stuck in 'eavy marchin'-order, sopped and wringin' --


s: Sick, before our time to watch 'er 'eave an' fall,


s: 'Ere's your 'appy 'ome at last, an' stop your singin'.


s: 'Alt!  Fall in along the troop-deck!  Silence all!


s: Cheer!  For we'll never live to see no bloomin' victory!


s: An' you'll never see your soldiers any more!  ('Ip!  Urroar!)


s: An' you'll never see your soldiers any more!


s: As I was spittin' into the Ditch aboard o' the _Crocodile_,


s: I seed a man on a man-o'-war got up in the Reg'lars' style.


s: 'E was scrapin' the paint from off of 'er plates,


s: 'E's a kind of a giddy harumfrodite -- soldier an' sailor too!


s: We've fought 'em in trooper, we've fought 'em in dock,


s: When they called us the seasick scull'ry-maids,


s: An' they done it, the Jollies -- 'Er Majesty's Jollies --


s: We're most of us liars, we're 'arf of us thieves,


s: But once in a while we can finish in style


s: But it makes you think better o' you an' your friends,


s: When the Waters were dried an' the Earth did appear,


s: When the Flood come along for an extra monsoon,


s: 'Twas Noah constructed the first pontoon


s: But after fatigue in the wet an' the sun,


s: Old Noah got drunk, which he wouldn't ha' done


s: When the Tower o' Babel had mixed up men's _bat_,


s: Young Joshua ordered the sun to stand still,


s: When the Children of Israel made bricks without straw,


s: They were learnin' the regular work of our Corps,


s: For ever since then, if a war they would wage,


s: Behold us a-shinin' on history's page --


s: We lay down their sidings an' help 'em entrain,


s: An' we sweep up their mess through the bloomin' campaign,


s: They send us in front with a fuse an' a mine


s: To blow up the gates that are rushed by the Line,


s: To dig for the guns of a bullock-brigade


s: We work under escort in trousers and shirt,


s: An' the heathen they plug us tail-up in the dirt,


s: We blast out the rock an' we shovel the mud,


s: We make 'em good roads an' -- they roll down the _khud_,


s: We make 'em their bridges, their wells, an' their huts,


s: An' when we return, an' from war we would cease,


s: They grudge us adornin' the billets of peace,


s: We build 'em nice barracks -- they swear they are bad,


s: That our Colonels are Methodist, married or mad,


s: They haven't no manners nor gratitude too,


s: For the more that we help 'em, the less will they do,


s: Now the Line's but a man with a gun in his hand,


s: An' Cavalry's only what horses can stand,


s: Artillery moves by the leave o' the ground,


s: But _we_ are the men that do something all round,


s: I have stated it plain, an' my argument's thus


s: There's only one Corps which is perfect -- that's us;


s: An' they call us Her Majesty's Engineers,


s: It got beyond all orders an' it got beyond all 'ope;


s: It got to shammin' wounded an' retirin' from the 'alt.


s: 'Ole companies was lookin' for the nearest road to slope;


s: It were just a bloomin' knock-out -- an' our fault!


s: An' I wish I was dead 'fore I done what I did,


s: We was sick o' bein' punished, an' we let 'em know it, too;


s: An' a company-commander up an' 'it us with a sword,


s: An' some one shouted "'Ook it!" an' it come to _sove-ki-poo_,


s: An' we chucked our rifles from us -- O my Gawd!


s: But, Christ! along the line o' flight they cut us up like sheep,


s: I 'eard the knives be'ind me, but I dursn't face my man,


s: Nor I don't know where I went to, 'cause I didn't 'alt to see,


s: Till I 'eard a beggar squealin' out for quarter as 'e ran,


s: An' I thought I knew the voice an' -- it was me!


s: We was 'idin' under bedsteads more than 'arf a march away;


s: We was lyin' up like rabbits all about the countryside;


s: An' the major cursed 'is Maker 'cause 'e lived to see that day,


s: An' the colonel broke 'is sword acrost, an' cried.


s: We was rotten 'fore we started -- we was never disci_plined_;


s: We made it out a favour if an order was obeyed;


s: Yes, every little drummer 'ad 'is rights an' wrongs to mind,


s: So we had to pay for teachin' -- an' we paid!


s: The papers 'id it 'andsome, but you know the Army knows;


s: We was put to groomin' camels till the regiments withdrew,


s: An' they gave us each a medal for subduin' England's foes,


s: An' I 'ope you like my song -- because it's true!


s: But I wish I was dead 'fore I done what I did,


s: The men that fought at Minden, they was rookies in their time --


s: All the 'ole command, yuss, from Minden to Maiwand,


s: Then do not be discouraged, 'Eaven is your 'elper,


s: An' you mustn't swear an' curse, or you'll only catch it worse,


s: But fatigue it was their pride, and they _would_ not be denied


s: The men that fought at Minden, they had anarchistic bombs


s: But they got it in the eye (same as you will by-an'-by)


s: The men that fought at Minden, they 'ad buttons up an' down,


s: But they didn't grouse an' shirk at an hour's extry work,


s: The men that fought at Minden, they was armed with musketoons,


s: I don't know what they were, but the sergeants took good care


s: The men that fought at Minden, they 'ad ever cash in 'and


s: But spent it gay an' free on their betters -- such as me --


s: But they got it with the toe (same as you will get it -- so!) --


s: The men that fought at Minden, they was several other things


s: But _that's_ the reason why, now the six-year men are dry,


s: Soldiers yet, if you've got it in you --


s: Run an' get the beer, Johnny Raw -- Johnny Raw!


s: We've got the cholerer in camp -- it's worse than forty fights;


s: We're dyin' in the wilderness the same as Isrulites;


s: It's before us, an' be'ind us, an' we cannot get away,


s: An' the doctor's just reported we've ten more to-day!


s: Oh, strike your camp an' go, the Bugle's callin',


s: The dead are bushed an' stoned to keep 'em safe below;


s: The Band's a-doin' all she knows to cheer us;


s: The Chaplain's gone and prayed to Gawd to 'ear us --


s: Since August, when it started, it's been stickin' to our tail,


s: An' the sick-list to the Colonel makes ten more to-day.


s: There ain't no fun in women nor there ain't no bite to drink;


s: It's much too wet for shootin', we can only march and think;


s: An' at evenin', down the _nullahs_, we can 'ear the jackals say,


s: "Get up, you rotten beggars, you've ten more to-day!"


s: 'Twould make a monkey cough to see our way o' doin' things --


s: Lieutenants takin' companies an' captains takin' wings,


s: An' Lances actin' Sergeants -- eight file to obey --


s: For we've lots o' quick promotion on ten deaths a day!


s: Our Colonel's white an' twitterly -- 'e gets no sleep nor food,


s: But mucks about in 'orspital where nothing does no good.


s: 'E sends us 'eaps o' comforts, all bought from 'is pay --


s: But there aren't much comfort 'andy on ten deaths a day.


s: Our Chaplain's got a banjo, an' a skinny mule 'e rides,


s: 'E's the proper kind o' _padre_ for ten deaths a day.


s: An' Father Victor 'elps 'im with our Roman Catholicks --


s: He knows an 'eap of Irish songs an' rummy conjurin' tricks;


s: An' the two they works together when it comes to play or pray;


s: So we keep the ball a-rollin' on ten deaths a day.


s: We've got the cholerer in camp -- we've got it 'ot an' sweet;


s: It ain't no Christmas dinner, but it's 'elped an' we must eat.


s: We've gone beyond the funkin', 'cause we've found it doesn't pay,


s: Then strike your camp an' go, the Rains are fallin',


s: The dead are bushed an' stoned to keep 'em safe below!


s: An' them that do not like it they can lump it,


s: An' them that cannot stand it they can jump it;


s: We've got to die somewhere -- some way -- some'ow --


s: Then, Number One, let down the tent-pole slow,


s: Knock out the pegs an' 'old the corners -- so!


s: Fold in the flies, furl up the ropes, an' stow!


s: Oh, strike -- oh, strike your camp an' go!


s: You never can say till you've tried 'em,


s: There's times when you'll think that you mightn't,


s: There's times when you'll know that you might;


s: But the things you will learn from the Yellow an' Brown,


s: But we lived on the square, like a true-married pair,


s: For she knifed me one night 'cause I wished she was white,


s: An' I wouldn't do such, 'cause I liked 'er too much,


s: For the more you 'ave known o' the others


s: An' the end of it's sittin' and thinkin',


s: So be warned by my lot (which I know you will not),


s: "D'yer know what 'e's like, Bill 'Awkins?"


s: "'E's the livin', breathin' image of an organ-grinder's monkey,


s: "I'd open 'is cheek to 'is chin-strap buckle,


s: "Look 'ere, where 'e comes, Bill 'Awkins!


s: "It isn't fit an' proper to be fightin' on a Sunday,


s: Inside -- "Brother", an' it doesn't do no 'arm.


s: We met upon the Level an' we parted on the Square,


s: An' I was Junior Deacon in my Mother-Lodge out there!


s: There was no one like 'im, 'Orse or Foot,


s: An' because it was so, why, o' course 'e went an' died,


s: So it's knock out your pipes an' follow me!


s: An' it's finish up your swipes an' follow me!


s: An' she won't take 'er feed 'cause o' waitin' for 'is step,


s: An' the banns are up in church, for she's got the beggar hooked,


s: We fought 'bout a dog -- last week it were --


s: But I strook 'im cruel 'ard, an' I wish I 'adn't now,


s: 'E was all that I 'ad in the way of a friend,


s: But I'd give my pay an' stripe for to get the beggar back,


s: An' it's finish off your swipes an' follow me!


s: Take 'im away!  'E's gone where the best men go.


s: Take 'im away!  An' the gun-wheels turnin' slow.


s: Take 'im away!  There's more from the place 'e come.


s: Take 'im away, with the limber an' the drum.


s: For it's "Three rounds blank" an' follow me,


s: But the Captain 'ad 'is jacket, an' the jacket it was new --


s: An' the wettin' of the jacket is the proper thing to do,


s: Nor we didn't keep 'im waitin' very long.


s: One day they gave us orders for to shell a sand redoubt,


s: But the Captain knew 'is dooty, an' he took the crackers out


s: An' he put some proper liquor in its place.


s: An' the Captain saw the shrapnel, which is six-an'-thirty clear.