Chapter X

My countrymen, if while upon the brink
Of this Penultimate of Destiny,
The world with gathered sinews, anxiously
Craning upon the plunge, awaits the wink
Of swithering Mars, I could but make you think
A wildish thought on purpose, it would be
That England in a night beneath the sea
Should like some greater Krakatoa sink.
Then while to water and oblivion
The great ship heels majestically down,
Ask ye what world it were in which the dawn
Sparkled no more on Ocean’s jewelled crown,
But in that place where England used to be
Spouted and plashed the insufferable sea.

HESEPE, _9th July_