<h2><SPAN name="page18"></SPAN><span class="pagenum"></span>THE FRONTIER LINE</h2>
<p class="poetry">What marks the frontier line?<br/>
Thou man of India, say!<br/>
Is it the Himalayas sheer,<br/>
The rocks and valleys of Cashmere,<br/>
Or Indus as she seeks the south<br/>
From Attoch to the fivefold mouth?<br/>
‘Not that! Not
that!’<br/>
Then answer me, I pray!<br/>
What marks the frontier line?</p>
<p class="poetry">What marks the frontier line?<br/>
Thou man of Burmah, speak!<br/>
Is it traced from Mandalay,<br/>
And down the marches of Cathay,<br/>
<SPAN name="page19"></SPAN><span class="pagenum"></span>From Bhamo
south to Kiang-mai,<br/>
And where the buried rubies lie?<br/>
‘Not that! Not
that!’<br/>
Then tell me what I seek:<br/>
What marks the frontier line?</p>
<p class="poetry">What marks the frontier line?<br/>
Thou Africander, say!<br/>
Is it shown by Zulu kraal,<br/>
By Drakensberg or winding Vaal,<br/>
Or where the Shiré waters seek<br/>
Their outlet east at Mozambique?<br/>
‘Not that! Not
that!<br/>
There is a surer way<br/>
To mark the frontier line.’</p>
<p class="poetry">What marks the frontier line?<br/>
Thou man of Egypt, tell!<br/>
Is it traced on Luxor’s sand,<br/>
Where Karnak’s painted pillars stand,<br/>
<SPAN name="page20"></SPAN><span class="pagenum"></span>Or where
the river runs between<br/>
The Ethiop and Bishareen?<br/>
‘Not that! Not
that!<br/>
By neither stream nor well<br/>
We mark the frontier line.</p>
<p class="poetry">‘But be it east or west,<br/>
One common sign we bear,<br/>
The tongue may change, the soil, the sky,<br/>
But where your British brothers lie,<br/>
The lonely cairn, the nameless grave,<br/>
Still fringe the flowing Saxon wave.<br/>
’Tis that! ’Tis
where<br/>
<i>They</i> lie—the men who placed it
there,<br/>
That marks the frontier line.’</p>
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