Classic Poem

Go, sail your tanks! Who was it spanned the seas,
Logged them and sounded them, gave you course and chart?
Hudson, Cook, Franklin — have ye men like these?
Lord! ye can follow; leading was our part!

Load in your cargoes — take them where ye like;
We've taught the fear of God and law of man
To black, brown, yellow — taught with shell and pike!
Your flag flies safe where our flag led the van.

Get up your anchors; trim your yards and go;
But when the capstan's manned, or sail is furled,
Whose songs d'ye sing? The gray-backed billows know
Our English chanteys, right around the world.

Then launch your ships, and take the open seas.
Man! there's the struggle that no folk avoids
By coddling coastwise laws and subsidies —
Ship to ship, mark ye! How d'ye class at Lloyds?