Collected Poems 1897 - 1907 | Page 7

you looks for a service free? (Hear what the sea-wind saith)
The rules o' the service are but three When ye sail with Admiral Death.
Steady your hand in time o' squalls, Stand to the last by him that falls,
And answer clear to the voice that calls, "Ay, Ay! Admiral Death!"
How will ye know him among the rest? (Hear what the sea-wind saith)
By the glint o' the stars that cover his breast Ye may find Admiral

Death. By the forehead grim with an ancient scar, By the voice that
rolls like thunder far, By the tenderest eyes of all that are, Ye may
know Admiral Death.
Where are the lads that sailed before? (Hear what the sea-wind saith)
Their bones are white by many a shore, They sleep with Admiral Death.
Oh! but they loved him, young and old, For he left the laggard, and
took the bold, And the fight was fought, and the story's told, And they
sleep with Admiral Death.

Homeward Bound
After long labouring in the windy ways, On smooth and shining tides
Swiftly the great ship glides, Her storms forgot, her weary watches past;
Northward she glides, and through the enchanted haze Faint on the
verge her far hope dawns at last.
The phantom sky-line of a shadowy down, Whose pale white cliffs
below Through sunny mist aglow, Like noon-day ghosts of summer
moonshine gleam--- Soft as old sorrow, bright as old renown, There
lies the home, of all our mortal dream.

Gillespie.
Riding at dawn, riding alone, Gillespie left the town behind; Before he
turned by the Westward road A horseman crossed him, staggering
blind.
"The Devil's abroad in false Vellore, The Devil that stabs by night," he
said, "Women and children, rank and file, Dying and dead, dying and
dead."
Without a word, without a groan, Sudden and swift Gillespie turned,
The blood roared in his ears like fire, Like fire the road beneath him
burned.
He thundered back to Arcot gate, He thundered up through Arcot town,
Before he thought a second thought In the barrack yard he lighted
down.
"Trumpeter, sound for the Light Dragoons, Sound to saddle and spur,"
he said; "He that is ready may ride with me, And he that can may ride
ahead."
Fierce and fain, fierce and fain, Behind him went the troopers grim,

They rode as ride the Light Dragoons But never a man could ride with
him.
Their rowels ripped their horses' sides, Their hearts were red with a
deeper goad, But ever alone before them all Gillespie rode, Gillespie
rode.
Alone he came to false Vellore, The walls were lined, the gates were
barred; Alone he walked where the bullets bit, And called above to the
Sergeant's Guard.
"Sergeant, Sergeant, over the gate, Where are your officers all?" he said;
Heavily came the Sergeant's voice, "There are two living and forty
dead."
"A rope, a rope," Gillespie cried : They bound their belts to serve his
need. There was not a rebel behind the wall But laid his barrel and drew
his bead.
There was not a rebel among them all But pulled his trigger and cursed
his aim, For lightly swung and rightly swung Over the gate Gillespie
came.
He dressed the line, he led the charge, They swept the wall like a
stream in spate, And roaring over the roar they heard The galloper guns
that burst the gate.
Fierce and fain, fierce and fain, The troopers rode the reeking flight:
The very stones remember still The end of them that stab by night.
They've kept the tale a hundred years, They'll keep the tale a hundred
more: Riding at dawn, riding alone, Gillespie came to false Vellore.

Seringapatam
"The sleep that Tippoo Sahib sleeps Heeds not the cry of man; The
faith that Tippoo Sahib keeps No judge on earth may scan; He is the
lord of whom ye hold Spirit and sense and limb, Fetter and chain are all
ye gain Who dared to plead with him."
Baird was bonny and Baird was young, His heart was strong as steel,
But life and death in the balance hung, For his wounds were ill to heal.
"Of fifty chains the Sultan gave We have filled but forty-nine: We dare
not fail of the perfect tale For all Golconda's mine."
That was the hour when Lucas first Leapt to his long renown; Like
summer rains his anger burst, And swept their scruples down. "Tell ye
the lord to whom ye crouch, His fetters bite their fill: To save your oath

I'll wear them both, And step the lighter still."
The seasons came, the seasons passed, They watched their fellows die;
But still their thought was forward cast, Their courage still was high.
Through tortured days and fevered nights