Page:The Seven Seas (Kipling, 1896).djvu/95

 THE DERELICT

I was the staunchest of our fleet

Till the sea rose beneath our feet

Unheralded, in hatred past all measure.

Into his pits he stamped my crew,

Buffeted, blinded, bound and threw,

Bidding me eyeless wait upon his pleasure.

Man made me, and my will

Is to my maker still,

Whom now the currents con, the rollers steer—

Lifting forlorn to spy

Trailed smoke along the sky,

Falling afraid lest any keel come near!

Wrenched as the lips of thirst,

Wried, dried, and split and burst,

Bone-bleached my decks, wind-scoured to the graining;