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1894
THE CITIES are full of pride, | |
| Challenging each to each— | |
| This from her mountain-side, | |
| That from her burdened beach. | |
| |
| They count their ships full tale— | 5 |
| Their corn and oil and wine, | |
| Derrick and loom and bale, | |
| And rampart’s gun-flecked line; | |
| City by City they hail: | |
| “Hast aught to match with mine?” | 10 |
| |
| And the men that breed from them | |
| They traffic up and down, | |
| But cling to their cities’ hem | |
| As a child to the mother’s gown. | |
| |
| When they talk with the stranger bands, | 15 |
| Dazed and newly alone; | |
| When they walk in the stranger lands, | |
| By roaring streets unknown; | |
| Blessing her where she stands | |
| For strength above their own. | 20 |
| |
| (On high to hold her fame | |
| That stands all fame beyond, | |
| By oath to back the same, | |
| Most faithful-foolish-fond; | |
| Making her mere-breathed name | 25 |
| Their bond upon their bond.) | |
| |
| So thank I God my birth | |
| Fell not in isles aside— | |
| Waste headlands of the earth, | |
| Or warring tribes untried— | 30 |
| But that she lent me worth | |
| And gave me right to pride. | |
| |
| Surely in toil or fray | |
| Under an alien sky, | |
| Comfort it is to say: | 35 |
| “Of no mean city am I!” | |
| |
| (Neither by service nor fee | |
| Come I to mine estate— | |
| Mother of Cities to me, | |
| But I was born in her gate, | 40 |
| Between the palms and the sea, | |
| Where the world-end steamers wait.) | |
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| Now for this debt I owe, | |
| And for her far-borne cheer | |
| Must I make haste and go | 45 |
| With tribute to her pier. | |
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| And she shall touch and remit | |
| After the use of kings | |
| (Orderly, ancient, fit) | |
| My deep-sea plunderings, | 50 |
| And purchase in all lands. | |
| And this we do for a sign | |
| Her power is over mine, | |
| And mine I hold at her hands! | |
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