To the cool of our deep verandas- To the hearth of our people's people- To the Power-house of the Line! We've drunk to the Queen-God bless her!— A health to the Native-born (Stand up!), All bound to sing o' the little things we care about, By the might of our cable-tow (Take hands!), All round the world (and a little loop to pull it by), F THE KING (1894) AREWELL, Romance!' the Cave-men said; 'With bone well carved he went away, Flint arms the ignoble arrowhead, And jasper tips the spear to-day. Changed are the Gods of Hunt and Dance, And he with these. Farewell, Romance!' 'Farewell, Romance!' the Lake-folk sighed; Hold him who scorns our hutted piers. 'Farewell, Romance!' the Soldier spoke; Who paid good blows. Romance, farewell!' 'Farewell, Romance!' the Traders cried; 'Our keels ha' lain with every sea; The dull-returning wind and tide Heave up the wharf where we would be; 'Good-bye, Romance!' the Skipper said; 'He vanished with the coal we burn; Our dial marks full steam ahead, Our speed is timed to half a turn. Sure as the ferried barge we ply 'Twixt port and port. Romance, good-bye!' 'Romance!' the season-tickets mourn, 'He never ran to catch his train, But passed with coach and guard and horn— His hand was on the lever laid, His oil-can soothed the worrying cranks, Robed, crowned and throned, he wove his spell, Where heart-blood beat or hearth-smoke curled, With unconsidered miracle, Hedged in a backward-gazing world; Then taught his chosen bard to say: 'Our King was with us-yesterday!' THE RHYME OF THE THREE SEALERS (1893) WAY by the lands of the Japanee A And the crews of all the shipping drink And ebb of Yokohama Bay Swigs chattering through the buoys, Of a hidden sea and a hidden fight, When the 'Baltic' ran from the 'Northern Light' Now this is the Law of the Muscovite, that he proves with shot and steel, When ye come by his isles in the Smoky Sea ye must not take the seal, Where the gray sea goes nakedly between the weed-hung shelves, And the little blue fox he is bred for his skin and the seal they breed for themselves; For when the matkas seek the shore to drop their pups aland, The great man-seal haul out of the sea, aroaring, band by band; And when the first September gales have slaked their rutting-wrath, The great man-seal haul back to the sea and no man knows their path. Then dark they lie and stark they lie-rookery, dune, and floe, And the Northern Lights come down o' nights to dance with the houseless snow; And God Who clears the grounding berg and steers the grinding floe, He hears the cry of the little kit-fox and the wind along the snow. But since our women must walk gay and money buys their gear, The sealing-boats they filch that way at hazard year by year. English they be and Japanee that hang on the Brown Bear's flank, And some be Scot, but the worst of the lot, and the boldest thieves, be Yank! It was the sealer 'Northern Light,' to the Smoky Seas she bore. With a stovepipe stuck from a starboard port and the Russian flag at her fore. ('Baltic,' 'Stralsund,' and 'Northern Light'-oh! they were birds of a feather Slipping away to the Smoky Seas, three seal-thieves together!) And at last she came to a sandy cove and the 'Baltic' lay therein, |