Page:The Seven Seas (Kipling, 1896).djvu/102

80 In the twilight, on a bucket upside down,

Hear me babble what the weakest won't confess—

I am Memory and Torment—I am Town!

I am all that ever went with evening dress!

With my ' Tunk-a tunka-tunka-tunka-tunk! '

[So the lights—the London Lights—grow near and plain!]

So I rowel 'em afresh towards the Devil and the Flesh,

Till I bring my broken rankers home again.

In desire of many marvels over sea,

Where the new-raised tropic city sweats and roars,

I have sailed with Young Ulysses from the quay

Till the anchor rumbled down on stranger shores.

He is blooded to the open and the sky,

He is taken in a snare that shall not fail,

He shall hear me singing strongly, till he die,

Like the shouting of a backstay in a gale.