Those that have stayed at thy knees, Mother, go call them in We that were bred overseas wait and would speak with our kin. Not in the dark do we fight-haggle and flout and gibe; Selling our love for a price, loaning our hearts for a bribe. Gifts have we only to-day-Love without promise or fee Hear, for thy children speak, from the uttermost parts of the sea! THE SONG OF THE CITIES BOMBAY Royal and Dower-royal, I the Queen Fronting thy richest sea with richer handsA thousand mills roar through me where I glean All races from all lands. CALCUTTA Me the Sea-captain loved, the River built, Hail, England! I am Asia-Power on silt, MADRAS Clive kissed me on the mouth and eyes and brow, Wonderful kisses, so that I became Crowned above Queens-a withered beldame now, Brooding on ancient fame. Hail, Mother! RANGOON Do they call me rich in trade? Little care I, but hear the shorn priest drone, And watch my silk-clad lovers, man by maid, Laugh 'neath my Shwe Dagon. Hail, Mother! SINGAPORE East and West must seek my aid Ere the spent gear may dare the ports afar. The second doorway of the wide world's trade Is mine to loose or bar. Hail, Mother! HONG-KONG Hold me fast; my Praya sleeps Under innumerable keels to-day. Yet guard (and landward), or to-morrow sweeps Thy war-ships down the bay! HALIFAX Into the mist my guardian prows put forth, QUEBEC AND MONTREAL Peace is our portion. Yet a whisper rose, VICTORIA From East to West the circling word has passed, CAPE TOWN Hail! Snatched and bartered oft from hand to hand, MELBOURNE Greeting! Nor fear nor favour won us place, SYDNEY Greeting! My birth-stain have I turned to good; Forcing strong wills perverse to steadfastness: The first flush of the tropics in my blood, And at my feet Success! BRISBANE The northern stirp beneath the southern skies I build a Nation for an Empire's need, Suffer a little, and my land shall rise, Queen over lands indeed! HOBART Man's love first found me; man's hate made me Hell; AUCKLAND Last, loneliest, loveliest, exquisite, apart— ENGLAND'S ANSWER Truly ye come of The Blood; slower to bless than to ban; Little used to lie down at the bidding of any man. Flesh of the flesh that I bred, bone of the bone that I bare; Stark as your sons shall be-stern as your fathers were. Deeper than speech our love, stronger than life our tether, But we do not fall on the neck nor kiss when we come together. My arm is nothing weak, my strength is not gone by; Sons, I have borne many sons, but my dugs are not dry. Look, I have made ye a place and opened wide the doors, That ye may talk together, your Barons and Councillors Wards of the Outer March, Lords of the Lower Seas, Ay, talk to your gray mother that bore you on her knees! That ye may talk together, brother to brother's Thus for the good of your peoples-thus for the Also, we will make promise. So long as The Blood endures, I shall know that your good is mine: ye shall feel that my strength is yours: In the day of Armageddon, at the last great fight of all, That Our House stand together and the pillars do not fall. Draw now the threefold knot firm on the ninefold bands, And the Law that ye make shall be law after the rule of your lands. |