We pulled for you when the wind was against us and the sails <br /> were low. <br /> Will you never let us go? <br />We ate bread and onions when you took towns, or ran aboard <br /> quickly when you were beaten back by the foe. <br />The Captains walked up and down the deck in fair weather sing- <br /> ing songs, but we were below. <br />We fainted with our chins on the oars and you did not see that <br /> we were idle, for we still swung to and fro. <br /> Will you never let us go? <br />The solt made the oar-hands like shark-skin; our knees were <br /> cut to the bone with salt-cracks; our hair was stuck to <br /> our foreheads; and our lips were cut to the gums, and you <br /> whipped us because we could not row. <br /> Will you never let us go? <br />But, in a little time, we shall run out of the port-holes as the water <br /> runs along the oar-blade, and though you tell the others <br /> to row after us you will never catch us till you catch the <br /> oar-thresh and tie up the winds in the belly of the sail. <br /> Aho! <br /> Will you never let us go?<br /><br />Rudyard Kipling<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/song-of-the-galley-slaves/
