To The City Of Bombay

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The Cities are full of pride,
 Challenging each to each -
  This from her mountain-side,
 That from her burthened beach.

  They count their ships full tale -
 Their corn and oil and wine,
  Derrick and loom and bale,
 And rampart's gun-flecked line;
  City by City they hail:
 "Hast aught to match with mine?"

  And the men that breed from them
 They traffic up and down,
  But cling to their cities' hem
 As a child to their mother's gown.

  When they talk with the stranger bands,
 Dazed and newly alone;
  When they walk in the stranger lands,
 By roaring streets unknown;
  Blessing her where she stands
 For strength above their own.

  (On high to hold her fame
 That stands all fame beyond,
  By oath to back the same,
 Most faithful-foolish-fond;
  Making her mere-breathed name
 Their bond upon their bond.)

  So thank I God my birth
 Fell not in isles aside -
  Waste headlands of the earth,
 Or warring tribes untried -
  But that she lent me worth
 And gave me right to pride.

  Surely in toil or fray
 Under an alien sky,
  Comfort it is to say:
 "Of no mean city am I!"

  (Neither by service nor fee
 Come I to mine estate -
  Mother of Cities to me,
 For I was born in her gate,
  Between the palms and the sea,
 Where the world-end steamers wait.)

  Now for this debt I owe,
 And for her far-borne cheer
  Must I make haste and go
 With tribute to her pier.

  And she shall touch and remit
 After the use of kings
  (Orderly, ancient, fit)
 My deep-sea plunderings,
  And purchase in all lands.
 And this we do for a sign
  Her power is over mine,
 And mine I hold at her hands!

© Rudyard Kipling