Poem: SONG OF THE GALLEY-SLAVES

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

Rudyard Kipling