Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936). Verse: 1885–1918. 1922.

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!”