The Complete Poems of Rudyard Kipling – 570+ Titles in One Edition. Rudyard 1865-1936 Kipling

Strange consorts rode beside us

       And brought us evil luck;

       The witch-fire climbed our channels,

       And danced on vane and truck:

       Till, through the red tornado,

       That lashed us nigh to blind,

       We saw The Dutchman plunging,

       Full canvas, head to wind!

       We've heard the Midnight Leadsman

       That calls the black deep down—

       Ay, thrice we've heard The Swimmer,

       The Thing that may not drown.

       On frozen bunt and gasket

       The sleet-cloud drave her hosts,

       When, manned by more than signed with us,

       We passed the Isle o' Ghosts!

       And north, amid the hummocks,

       A biscuit-toss below,

       We met the silent shallop

       That frighted whalers know;

       For, down a cruel ice-lane,

       That opened as he sped,

       We saw dead Henry Hudson

       Steer, North by West, his dead.

       So dealt God's waters with us

       Beneath the roaring skies,

       So walked His signs and marvels

       All naked to our eyes:

       But we were heading homeward

       With trade to lose or make—

       Good Lord, they slipped behind us

       In the tailing of our wake!

       Let go, let go the anchors;

       Now shamed at heart are we

       To bring so poor a cargo home

       That had for gift the sea!

       Let go the great bow-anchors—

       Ah, fools were we and blind—

       The worst we baled with utter toil,

       The best we left behind!

      Coastwise—cross-seas—round the world and back again, Whither the flaw shall fail us or the Trades drive down: Plain-sail—storm-sail—lay your board and tack again— And all to bring a cargo up to London Town!