Page:Departmental Ditties and Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads, Kipling, 1899.djvu/299

Rh "Never the lotos closes, never the wild-fowl wake,

"But a soul goes out on the East Wind that died for England's sake—

"Man or woman or suckling, mother or bride or maid—

"Because on the bones of the English the English Flag is stayed.

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

"The scared white leopard winds it across the taintless snows.

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

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

The West Wind called:—"In squadrons the thoughtless galleons fly

"That bear the wheat and cattle lest street-bred people die.

"They make my might their porter, they make my house their path,

"Till I loose my neck from their rudder and whelm them all in my wrath.