Page:The Seven Seas (Kipling, 1896).djvu/95

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THE DERELICT

'And reports the derelict Mary Pollock still at sea.'

SHIPPING NEWS.

I was the staunchest of our fleet
Till the sea rose beneath our feet
Unheralded, in hatred past all measure.
Into his pits he stamped my crew,
Buffeted, blinded, bound and threw,
Bidding me eyeless wait upon his pleasure.


Man made me, and my will
Is to my maker still,
Whom now the currents con, the rollers steer—
Lifting forlorn to spy
Trailed smoke along the sky,
Falling afraid lest any keel come near!


Wrenched as the lips of thirst,
Wried, dried, and split and burst,

Bone-bleached my decks, wind-scoured to the graining;