Page:The Seven Seas (Kipling, 1896).djvu/11

Rh (Neither by service nor fee

Come I to mine estate—

Mother of Cities to me,

For I was born in her gate,

Between the palms and the sea,

Where the world-end steamers wait.)

Now for this debt I owe,

And for her far-borne cheer

Must I make haste and go

With tribute to her pier.

And she shall touch and remit

After the use of kings

(Orderly, ancient, fit)

My deep-sea plunderings,

And purchase in all lands.

And this we do for a sign

Her power is over mine,

And mine I hold at her hands!