Page:Poems, new and old (IA poemsnewold00newb).pdf/77
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
THE SERVICE
61
Their wisdom has three words, unwrit, untold,
But handed down from heart to heart of old:
The first is this: while ships are ships the aim
Of every man aboard is still the same.
On land there's something men self-interest call,
Here each must save himself by saving all.
Your danger's mine: who thinks to stand aside
When the ship's buffeted by wind and tide?
If she goes down, we know that we go too—
Not just the watch on deck, but all the crew.
Mark now what follows—no half-willing work
From minds divided or from hands that shirk,
But that one perfect freedom, that content
Which comes of force for something greater spent,
And welds us all, from conning tower to keel,
In one great fellowship of tempered steel.
But handed down from heart to heart of old:
The first is this: while ships are ships the aim
Of every man aboard is still the same.
On land there's something men self-interest call,
Here each must save himself by saving all.
Your danger's mine: who thinks to stand aside
When the ship's buffeted by wind and tide?
If she goes down, we know that we go too—
Not just the watch on deck, but all the crew.
Mark now what follows—no half-willing work
From minds divided or from hands that shirk,
But that one perfect freedom, that content
Which comes of force for something greater spent,
And welds us all, from conning tower to keel,
In one great fellowship of tempered steel.
The third is like to these:—there is no peace
In the sea-life, our warfare does not cease.
The great emergency in which we strain
With all our force, our passion and our pain,
Is no mere transient fight with hostile kings,
But mortal war against immortal things—
Danger and Death themselves, whose end shall be
When there is no more wind and no more sea.
In the sea-life, our warfare does not cease.
The great emergency in which we strain
With all our force, our passion and our pain,
Is no mere transient fight with hostile kings,
But mortal war against immortal things—
Danger and Death themselves, whose end shall be
When there is no more wind and no more sea.
What of this sea-born wisdom? Is it not
Truth that on land we have too long forgot
While this great ship the Commonwealth's afloat
Are we not seamen all, and in one boat?
Truth that on land we have too long forgot
While this great ship the Commonwealth's afloat
Are we not seamen all, and in one boat?