Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936). Verse: 1885–1918. 1922.
The English Flag
W
And what should they know of England who only England know?—
The poor little street-bred people that vapour and fume and brag,
They are lifting their heads in the stillness to yelp at the English Flag!
An Irish liar’s bandage, or an English coward’s shirt?
We may not speak of England; her Flag’s to sell or share.
What is the Flag of England? Winds of the World, declare!
“I chase your lazy whalers home from the Disko floe.
“By the great North Lights above me I work the will of God,
“And the liner splits on the ice-field or the Dogger fills with cod.
“Because to force my ramparts your nutshell navies came.
“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 musk-ox knows the standard that flouts the Northern Lights:
“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!”
“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.
“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 chased it north to the Lizard—ribboned and rolled and torn;
“I have spread its fold o’er the dying, adrift in a hopeless sea;
“I have hurled it swift on the slaver, and seen the slave set free.
“Where the lone wave fills with fire beneath the Southern Cross.
“What is the Flag of England? Ye have but my reefs to dare,
“Ye have but my seas to furrow. Go forth, for it is there!”
“And me men call the Home-Wind, for I bring the English home.
“Look—look well to your shipping! By breath of my mad typhoon
“I swept your close-packed Praya and beached your best at Kowloon!
“I raped your richest roadstead—I plundered Singapore!
“I set my hand on the Hoogli; as a hooded snake she rose;
“And I flung your stoutest steamers to roost with the startled crows.
“But a soul goes out on the East Wind that died for England’s sake—
“Man or woman or suckling, mother or bride or maid—
“Because on the bones of the English the English Flag is stayed.
“The scared white leopard winds it across the taintless snows.
“What is the Flag of England? Ye have but my sun to dare,
“Ye have but my sands to travel. Go forth, for it is there!”
“That bear the wheat and cattle lest street-bred people die.
“They make my might their porter, they make my house their path,
“Till I loose my neck from their rudder and whelm them all in my wrath.
“They bellow one to the other, the frighted ship-bells toll,
“For day is a drifting terror till I raise the shroud with my breath,
“And they see strange bows above them and the two go locked to death.
“I heave them whole to the conger or rip their plates away,
“First of the scattered legions, under a shrieking sky,
“Dipping between the rollers, the English Flag goes by.
“The naked stars have seen it, a fellow-star in the mist.
“What is the Flag of England? Ye have but my breath to dare,
“Ye have but my waves to conquer. Go forth, for it is there!”