A Song of the English (1909)/The Deep-Sea Cables

by Rudyard Kipling, W. Heath Robinson

Layout 2

THE DEEP-SEA CABLES

XIV

THE WRECKS DISSOLVE ABOVE US

The wrecks dissolve above us; their dust drops down from afar—
Down to the dark, to the utter dark, where the blind white sea-snakes are.

XV

IN THE WOMB OF THE WORLD

Here, in the womb of the world—here on the tie-ribs of earth
Words, and the words of men, flicker and flutter and beat—
Warning, sorrow and gain, salutation and mirth—
For a Power troubles the Still that has neither voice nor feet.

THE WRECKS DISSOLVE
ABOVE US

IN THE WOMB OF
THE WORLD

THE DEEP-SEA CABLES

The wrecks dissolve above us; their dust drops down from afar—
Down to the dark, to the utter dark, where the blind white sea-snakes are.
There is no sound, no echo of sound, in the deserts of the deep,
Or the great grey level plains of ooze where the shell-burred cables creep.

Here in the womb of the world—here on the tie-ribs of earth
Words, and the words of men, flicker and flutter and beat—
Warning, sorrow and gain, salutation and mirth—
For a Power troubles the Still that has neither voice nor feet.

They have wakened the timeless Things; they have killed their father Time;
Joining hands in the gloom, a league from the last of the sun.
Hush! Men talk to-day o'er the waste of the ultimate slime,
And a new Word runs between: whispering, 'Let us be one!'

XVI

WE THAT WERE BRED OVERSEAS

Those that have stayed at thy knees, Mother, go call them in—
We that were bred overseas wait and would speak with our kin.
Not in the dark do we fight-haggle and flout and gibe;
Selling our love for a price, loaning our hearts for a bribe.

WE THAT WERE BRED
OVERSEAS