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 338 KIPLING

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 taint- less 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 thought- less 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,

And I loose my neck from their service and whelm them all in my wrath.

I draw the gliding fog-bank as a snake is drawn from the hole,

They bellow one to the other, the frighted ship- bells toll :

For day is a drifting terror till I raise the shroud with my breath,

And they see strange bows above them and the two go locked to death.

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