"But whether in calm or wrack-wreath, whether by dark or day,
I heave them whole to the conger or rip their plates away,
First of the scattered legions, under a shrieking sky,
Dipping between the rollers, the English Flag goes by.
"The dead dumb fog hath wrapped it--the frozen dews have kissed--
The naked stars have seen it, a fellow-star in the mist.
What is the Flag of England? Ye have but my breath to dare,
Ye have but my waves to conquer. Go forth, for it is there!"
RUDYARD KIPLING.
THE MAN WITH THE HOE.
"The Man With the Hoe" is purely an American product, and every
American ought to be proud of it, for we want no such type allowed to
be developed in this country as the low-browed peasant of France. This
poem is a stroke of genius. The story goes that it so offended a modern
plutocrat that he offered a reward of $10,000 to any one who could
write an equally good poem in rebuttal. "The Man With the Hoe" has won
for Edwin Markham the title of "Poet Laureate of the Labouring
Classes.
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