Explore "The Voortrekker" by Rudyard Kipling on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The gull shall whistle in his wake, the blind wave break in fire. / He shall fulfil God's utmost will, unknowing his desire. / And he shall see old planets change and alien stars arise, / And give the gale his seaworn sail in shadow of new skies. / Strong lust of gear shall drive him forth and hunger arm his hand, / To win his food from the desert rude, his pittance from the sand. / His neighbours' smoke shall vex his eyes, their voices break his rest, / He shall go forth till south is north sullen and dispossessed. / He shall desire loneliness and his desire shall bring, / Hard on his heels, a thousand wheels, a People and a King. / He shall come back on his own track, and by his scarce-cooled camp / There shall he meet the roaring street, the derrick and the stamp: / There he shall blaze a nation's ways with hatchet and with brand, / Till on his last-won wilderness an Empire's outposts stand.