338 KIPLING
Man or woman or suckling, mother or bride or
maid Because on the bones of the English the English
Flag is stayed.
The desert-dust hath dimmed it, the flying wild- ass knows,
The scared white leopard winds it across the taint- less snows.
What is the Flag of England? Ye have but my sun to dare,
Ye have but my sands to travel. Go forth, for it is there ! '
The West Wind called: 'In squadrons the thought- less galleons fly
That bear the wheat and cattle lest street-bred people die.
They make my might their porter, they make my house their path,
And I loose my neck from their service and whelm them all in my wrath.
I draw the gliding fog-bank as a snake is drawn from the hole,
They bellow one to the other, the frighted ship- bells toll :
For day is a drifting terror till I raise the shroud with my breath,
And they see strange bows above them and the two go locked to death.
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