Page:The Seven Seas (Kipling, 1896).djvu/9

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DEDICATION

TO THE CITY OF BOMBAY

The Cities are full of pride,
Challenging each to each—
This from her mountain-side,
That from her burthened beach.


They count their ships full tale—
Their corn and oil and wine,
Derrick and loom and bale,
And rampart's gun-flecked line;
City by City they hail:
'Hast aught to match with mine?'


And the men that breed from them
They traffic up and down,
But cling to their cities' hem
As a child to their mother's gown.


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