# The Seven Seas

THE SEVEN SEAS
BY RUDYARD KIPLING
METHUEN AND CO.
36 ESSEX STREET, W.C.
LONDON
1896
CONTENTS
| | PAGE |
| DEDICATION | |
| The Cities are full of pride, | v |
| The Seven Seas | |
| A SONG OF THE ENGLISH | |
| Fair is our lot—O goodly is our heritage! | 1 |
| The Coastwise Lights |
| Our brows are bound with spindrift and the weed is on our knees, | 3 |
| The Song of the Dead |
| Hear now the Song of the Dead—in the North by the torn berg-edges, | 5 |
| The Deep-Sea Cables |
| The wrecks dissolve above us; their dust drops down from afar, | 9 ​ |
| The Song of the Sons |
| One from the ends of the earth—gifts at an open door—, | 10 |
| The Song of the Cities |
| Royal and Dower-royal, I the Queen, | 11 |
| England's Answer |
| Truly ye come of The Blood; slower to bless than to ban, | 15 |
| THE FIRST CHANTEY | |
| Mine was the woman to me, darkling I found her, | 18 |
| THE LAST CHANTEY | |
| Thus said the Lord in the Vault above the Cherubim, | 21 |
| THE MERCHANTMEN | |
| King Solomon drew merchantmen, | 26 |
| M'ANDREW'S HYMN | |
| Lord, Thou hast made this world below the shadow of a dream, | 31 |
| THE MIRACLES | |
| I sent a message to my dear, | 47 ​ |
| THE NATIVE-BORN | |
| We've drunk to the Queen—God bless her! | 49 |
| THE KING | |
| 'Farewell, Romance!' the Cave-men said, | 55 |
| THE RHYME OF THE THREE SEALERS | |
| Away by the lands of the Japanee, | 58 |
| THE DERELICT | |
| I was the staunchest of our fleet, | 73 |
| THE ANSWER | |
| A Rose, in tatters on the garden path, | 76 |
| THE SONG OF THE BANJO | |
| You couldn't pack a Broadwood half a mile, | 78 |
| THE LINER SHE'S A LADY | |
| The Liner she's a lady, an' she never looks nor 'eeds, | 85 |
| MULHOLLAND'S CONTRACT | |
| The fear was on the cattle, for the gale was on the sea, | 88 ​ |
| ANCHOR SONG | |
| Heh! Walk her round. Heave, ah heave her short again! | 92 |
| THE LOST LEGION | |
| There's a Legion that never was 'listed, | 96 |
| THE SEA-WIFE | |
| There dwells a wife by the Northern Gate, | 100 |
| HYMN BEFORE ACTION | |
| The earth is full of anger, | 103 |
| TO THE TRUE ROMANCE | |
| Thy face is far from this our war, | 106 |
| THE FLOWERS | |
| Bay my English posies! | 111 |
| THE LAST RHYME OF TRUE THOMAS | |
| The King has called for priest and cup, | 115 |
| IN THE NEOLITHIC AGE | |
| In the Neolithic Age savage warfare did I wage, | 124 ​ |
| THE STORY OF UNG | |
| Once, on a glittering ice-field, ages and ages ago, | 128 |
| THE THREE-DECKER | |
| Full thirty foot she towered from waterline to rail, | 134 |
| AN AMERICAN | |
| If the Led Striker call it a strike, | 139 |
| THE MARY GLOSTER | |
| I've paid for your sickest fancies; I've humoured your crackedest whim, | 142 |
| SESTINA OF THE TRAMP-ROYAL | |
| Speakin' in general, I 'ave tried 'em all, | 158 |
| Barrack-Room Ballads | |
| 'BACK TO THE ARMY AGAIN' | |
| I'm 'ere in a ticky ulster an' a broken billycock 'at, | 163 |
| 'BIRDS OF PREY' MARCH | |
| March! The mud is cakin' good about our trousies, | 168 ​ |
| 'SOLDIER AN' SAILOR TOO' | |
| As I was spittin' into the Ditch aboard o' the Crocodile, | 171 |
| SAPPERS | |
| When the Waters were dried an' the Earth did appear, | 175 |
| THAT DAY | |
| It got beyond all orders an' it got beyond all 'ope, | 179 |
| 'THE MEN THAT FOUGHT AT MINDEN' | |
| The men that fought at Minden, they was rookies in their time, | 182 |
| CHOLERA CAMP | |
| We've got the cholerer in camp—it's worse than forty fights, | 186 |
| THE LADIES | |
| I've taken my fun where I've found it, | 190 |
| BILL 'AWKINS | |
| ' 'As anybody seen Bill 'Awkins?' | 194 |
| THE MOTHER-LODGE | |
| There was Rundle, Station Master, | 196 ​ |
| 'FOLLOW ME 'OME ' | |
| There was no one like 'im, 'Orse or Foot, | 200 |
| THE SERGEANT'S WEDDIN' | |
| 'E was warned again 'er, | 203 |
| THE JACKET | |
| Through the Plagues of Egyp' we was chasin' Arabi, | 206 |
| THE 'EATHEN | |
| The 'eathen in 'is blindness bows down to wood an' stone, | 210 |
| THE SHUT-EYE SENTRY | |
| Sez the Junior Orderly Sergeant, | 217 |
| 'MARY, PITY WOMEN!' | |
| You call yourself a man, | 222 |
| FOR TO ADMIRE | |
| The Injian Ocean sets an' smiles, | 225 |
| L'ENVOI | |
| When Earth's last picture is painted and the tubes are twisted and dried, | 229 |
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1936, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 87 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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