The Seven Seas

E-text prepared by Stephen Hope, Joseph Cooper, Stephen Blundell, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)
Author of Many Inventions, Barrack-Room Ballads, The Jungle Books, Etc.
New York D. Appleton and Company 1900
Copyright, 1896, By RUDYARD KIPLING
This book is also protected by copyright under the laws of Great Britain, and the several poems contained herein have also been severally copyrighted in the United States of America.


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 the mother's gown.
When they talk with the stranger bands, Dazed and newly alone; When they walk in the stranger lands, By roaring streets unknown; Blessing her where she stands For strength above their own.
(On high to hold her fame That stands all fame beyond, By oath to back the same, Most faithful-foolish-fond; Making her mere-breathed name Their bond upon their bond.)