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BOMBAY ROYAL and Dower-royal, I the Queen | |
| Fronting thy richest sea with richer hands— | |
| A thousand mills roar through me where I glean | |
| All races from all lands. | |
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CALCUTTA Me the Sea-captain loved, the River built, | 5 |
| Wealth sought and Kings adventured life to hold. | |
| Hail, England! I am Asia—Power on silt, | |
| Death in my hands, but Gold! | |
| |
MADRAS Clive kissed me on the mouth and eyes and brow, | |
| Wonderful kisses, so that I became | 10 |
| Crowned above Queens—a withered beldame now, | |
| Brooding on ancient fame. | |
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RANGOON Hail, Mother! Do they call me rich in trade? | |
| Little care I, but hear the shorn priest drone, | |
| And watch my silk-clad lovers, man by maid, | 15 |
| Laugh ’neath my Shwe Dagon. | |
| |
SINGAPORE Hail, Mother! East and West must seek my aid | |
| Ere the spent hull may dare the ports afar. | |
| The second doorway of the wide world’s trade | |
| Is mine to loose or bar. | 20 |
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HONG-KONG Hail, Mother! Hold me fast; my Praya sleeps | |
| Under innumerable keels to-day. | |
| Yet guard (and landward), or to-morrow sweeps | |
| Thy warships down the bay! | |
| |
HALIFAX Into the mist my guardian prows put forth, | 25 |
| Behind the mist my virgin ramparts lie, | |
| The Warden of the Honour of the North, | |
| Sleepless and veiled am I! | |
| |
QUEBEC AND MONTREAL Peace is our portion. Yet a whisper rose, | |
| Foolish and causeless, half in jest, half hate. | 30 |
| Now wake we and remember mighty blows, | |
| And, fearing no man, wait! | |
| |
VICTORIA From East to West the circling word has passed, | |
| Till West is East beside our land-locked blue; | |
| From East to West the tested chain holds fast, | 35 |
| The well-forged link rings true! | |
| |
CAPETOWN Hail! Snatched and bartered oft from hand to hand, | |
| I dream my dream, by rock and heath and pine, | |
| Of Empire to the northward. Ay, one land | |
| From Lion’s Head to Line! | 40 |
| |
MELBOURNE Greeting! Nor fear nor favour won us place, | |
| Got between greed of gold and dread of drouth, | |
| Loud-voiced and reckless as the wild tide-race | |
| That whips our harbour-mouth! | |
| |
SYDNEY Greeting! My birth-stain have I turned to good; | 45 |
| Forcing strong wills perverse to steadfastness: | |
| The first flush of the tropics in my blood, | |
| And at my feet Success! | |
| |
BRISBANE The northern stirp beneath the southern skies— | |
| I build a Nation for an Empire’s need, | 50 |
| Suffer a little, and my land shall rise, | |
| Queen over lands indeed! | |
| |
HOBART Man’s love first found me; man’s hate made me Hell; | |
| For my babes’ sake I cleansed those infamies. | |
| Earnest for leave to live and labour well, | 55 |
| God flung me peace and ease. | |
| |
AUCKLAND Last, loneliest, loveliest, exquisite, apart— | |
| On us, on us the unswerving season smiles, | |
| Who wonder ’mid our fern why men depart | |
| To seek the Happy Isles! | 60 |
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