Page:The Seven Seas (Kipling, 1896).djvu/50

28 We've floundered off the Texel,

Awash with sodden deals,

We've slipped from Valparaiso

With the Norther at our heels:

We've ratched beyond the Crossets

That tusk the Southern Pole,

And dipped our gunnels under

To the dread Agulhas roll.

Beyond all outer charting

We sailed where none have sailed,

And saw the land-lights burning

On islands none have hailed;

Our hair stood up for wonder,

But, when the night was done,

There danced the deep to windward

Blue-empty 'neath the sun!

Strange consorts rode beside us

And brought us evil luck;

The witch-fire climbed our channels,

And flared on vane and truck: