Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/448

 "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 "And left the local late again!" Confound Romance! . . . And all unseen Romance brought up the nine-fifteen.

His hand was on the lever laid, His oil-can soothed the worrying cranks, His whistle waked the snowbound grade, His fog-horn cut the reeking Banks; By dock and deep and mine and mill The Boy-god reckless laboured still!

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!"

HE King has called for priest and cup, The King has taken spur and blade To dub True Thomas a belted knight, And all for the sake o' the songs he made.