336 KIPLING
I took the sun from their presence, I cut them
down with my blast, And they died, but the Flag of England blew free
ere the spirit passed.
The lean white bear hath seen it in the long, long
Arctic night, The musk-ox knows the standard that flouts the
Northern Light: What is the Flag of England? Ye have but my
bergs to dare, Ye have but my drifts to conquer. Go forth, for
it is there ! '
The South Wind sighed: 'From the Virgins my
mid-sea course was ta'en Over a thousand islands lost in an idle main, Where the sea-egg flames on the coral and the
long-backed breakers croon Their endless ocean legends to the lazy, locked
lagoon.
Strayed amid lonely islets, mazed amid outer keys, I waked the palms to laughter I tossed the scud
in the breeze
Never was isle so little, never was sea so lone, But over the scud and the palm-trees an English
flag was flown.
I have wrenched it free from the halliard to hang
for a wisp on the Horn; I have chased it north to the Lizard ribboned
and rolled and torn;
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