<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">Destroyers off Jutland</h1><p class="inline-note" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"> ["If lost hounds could speak when they cast up next day after an un-checked night among the wild life of the dark they would talk much as our destroyers do." -- <em>Rudyard Kipling</em>.] </p><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">They</span> had hot scent across the spumy sea,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%"><em>Gehenna</em> and her sister, swift <em>Shaitan</em>,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">That in the pack, with <em>Goblin</em>, <em>Eblis</em> ran</p><p class="line">And many a couple more, full cry, foot-free;</p><p class="line">The dog-fox and his brood were fain to flee,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">But bare of fang and dangerous to the van</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">That pressed them close. So when the kill began</p><p class="line">Some hounds were lamed and some died splendidly.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">But from the dusk along the Skagerack,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Until dawn loomed upon the Reef of Horn</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">And the last fox had slunk back to his earth,</p><p class="line">They kept the great traditions of the pack,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Staunch-hearted through the hunt, as they were born,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">These hounds that England suckled at the birth.</p></div><p class="byline">Reginald McIntosh Cleveland</p></body></html> · Great War