T

DEDICATION

To the City of Bombay

(1896)

HE Cities are full of pride,
Challenging each to each-
This from her mountain-side,

That from her burthened 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,

For 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.

DEDICATION

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!

A SONG OF THE ENGLISH

(1893)

F

AIR is our lot-O goodly is our heritage!

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

For the Lord our God Most High

He hath made the deep as dry,

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

Yea, though we sinned-and our rulers went from right

eousness

Deep in all dishonour though we stained our garments' hem.

Oh be ye not dismayed,

Though we stumbled and we strayed,

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

Hold ye the Faith-the Faith our Fathers sealed us;
Whoring not with visions-overwise and overstale.
Except ye pay the Lord

Single heart and single sword,

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

A SONG OF THE ENGLISH

Keep ye the Law-be swift in all obedience

Clear the land of evil, drive the road and bridge the ford. Make ye sure to each his own

That he reap where he hath sown;

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

Hear now a song-a song of broken interludes-
A song of little cunning; of a singer nothing worth.
Through the naked words and mean

May ye see the truth between

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

THE COASTWISE LIGHTS

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

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

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

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

Through the endless summer evenings, on the lineless, level floors;

Through the yelling Channel tempest when the siren hoots and roars

By day the dipping house-flag and by night the rocket's

trail

As the sheep that graze behind us so we know them

where they hail.