Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/742

 ?2 4 RUDYARD KIPLING'S VERSE

God speed the Mary of the Tower, the Sovereign, and Grace

Dieu, The Sweepstakes and the Mary Fortune, and the Henry

of Bristol too !

All tall ships that sail on the sea, or in our harbours stand, That they may keep measure with Harry our King and peace in

Engeland!

THE WET LITANY

/"HEN the water's countenance

Blurrs 'twixt glance and second glance; Then our tattered smokes forerun Ashen 'neath a silvered sun; When the curtain of the haze Shuts upon our helpless ways

Hear the Channel Fleet at sea:

Libera nos Domine !

When the engines' bated pulse Scarcely thrills the nosing hulls; When the wash along the side Sounds, a-sudden, magnified; When the intolerable blast Marks each blindfold minute passed;

When the fog-buoy's squattering flight Guides us through the haggard night; W r hen the warning bugle blows; When the lettered doorways close; When our brittle townships press, Impotent, on emptiness;