TO THE CITY OF BOMBAY

1894

THE Cities are full of pride,
Challenging each to each-

This from her mountain-side,
That from her burdened beach.

They count their ships full tale-
Their corn and oil and wine,
Derrick and loom and bale,

And rampart's gun-flecked line;
City by City they hail:

"Hast aught to match with mine?"

And the men that breed from them
They traffic up and down,
But cling to their cities' hem

As a child to the mother's gown.

When they talk with the stranger bands, Dazed and newly alone;

When they walk in the stranger lands, By roaring streets unknown;

Blessing her where she stands

For strength above their own.

(On high to hold her fame

That stands all fame beyond, By oath to back the same,

Most faithful-foolish-fond;

Making her mere-breathed name

Their bond upon their bond.)

So thank I God my birth
Fell not in isles aside-
Waste headlands of the earth,

Or warring tribes untried-
But that she lent me worth
And gave me right to pride.

Surely in toil or fray

Under an alien sky,

Comfort it is to say:

"Of no mean city am I!"

(Neither by service nor fee Come I to mine estateMother of Cities to me,

But I was born in her gate, Between the palms and the sea, Where the world-end steamers wait.)

Now for this debt I owe,

And for her far-borne cheer

Must I make haste and go

With tribute to her pier.

And she shall touch and remit
After the use of kings
(Orderly, ancient, fit)

My deep-sea plunderings,
And purchase in all lands.
And this we do for a sign
Her power is over mine,

And mine I hold at her hands!

THE GIPSY TRAIL

THE white moth to the closing bine,
The bee to the opened clover,

And the gipsy blood to the gipsy blood
Ever the wide world over.

Ever the wide world over, lass,

Ever the trail held true,

Over the world and under the world,
And back at the last to you.

Out of the dark of the gorgio camp,
Out of the grime and the gray
(Morning waits at the end of the world),
Gipsy, come away!

The wild boar to the sun-dried swamp,
The red crane to her reed,

And the Romany lass to the Romany lad
By the tie of a roving breed.

The pied snake to the rifted rock,
The buck to the stony plain,

And the Romany lass to the Romany lad,
And both to the road again.

Both to the road again, again!
Out on a clean sea-track-
Follow the cross of the gipsy trail
Over the world and back!

Follow the Romany patteran

North where the blue bergs sail,

And the bows are gray with the frozen spray, And the masts are shod with mail.

Follow the Romany patteran

Sheer to the Austral Light,

Where the besom of God is the wild South wind, Sweeping the sea-floors white.

Follow the Romany patteran

West to the sinking sun,

Till the junk-sails lift through the houseless drift, And the east and the west are one.

Follow the Romany patteran

East where the silence broods
By a purple wave on an opal beach
In the hush of the Mahim woods.

"The wild hawk to the wind-swept sky,
The deer to the wholesome wold

And the heart of a man to the heart of a maid,
As it was in the days of old."

The heart of a man to the heart of a maid—
Light of my tents, be fleet.

Morning waits at the end of the world,

And the world is all at our feet!

OUR LADY OF THE SNOWS

1897

(Canadian Preferential Tariff, 1897)

A NATION spoke to a Nation,
A Queen sent word to a Throne:

"Daughter am I in my mother's house,
But mistress in my own.

The gates are mine to open,

As the gates are mine to close, And I set my house in order," Said our Lady of the Snows.

"Neither with laughter nor weeping,
Fear or the child's amaze-
Soberly under the White Man's law
My white men go their ways.
Not for the Gentiles' clamour-
Insult or threat of blows-

Bow we the knee to Baal,"

Said our Lady of the Snows.

"My speech is clean and single, I talk of common things

Words of the wharf and the market-place

And the ware the merchant brings;

Favour to those I favour,

But a stumbling-block to my foes.

Many there be that hate us,'

Said our Lady of the Snows.

"I called my chiefs to council.

In the din of a troubled year;

For the sake of a sign ye would not see,
And a word ye would not hear.

This is our message and answer;

This is the path we chose:

For we be also a people,"

Said our Lady of the Snows.

"Carry the word to my sisters

To the Queens of the East and the South.

I have proven faith in the Heritage

By more than the word of the mouth.