Thorkild's Song

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Title:     Thorkild's Song
Author: Rudyard Kipling [More Titles by Kipling]

There's no wind along these seas.
_Out oars for Stavanger!_
_Forward all for Stavanger!_
So we must wake the white-ash breeze,
_Let fall for Stavanger!_
_A long pull for Stavanger!_

Oh, hear the benches creak and strain!
_(A long pull for Stavanger!)_
She thinks she smells the Northland rain!
_(A long pull for Stavanger!)_

She thinks she smells the Northland snow,
And she's as glad as we to go.

She thinks she smells the Northland rime,
And the dear dark nights of winter-time.

She wants to be at her own home pier,
To shift her sails and standing gear.

She wants to be in her winter-shed.
To strip herself and go to bed.

Her very bolts are sick for shore,
And we--we want it ten times more!

So all you Gods that love brave men,
Send us a three-reef gale again!

Send us a gale, and watch us come,
With close-cropped canvas slashing home!

_But_--there's no wind on all these seas,
_A long pull for Stavanger!_
So we must wake the white-ash breeze,
_A long pull for Stavanger!_

[The end]
Rudyard Kipling's poem: Thorkild's Song

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