Thinking Imperially by Hugh Owen Meredith

In London docks the sails are furl'd
Of ships that come from all the world:
Piston and screw find rest at last,
That over every sea have pass'd.

Here are delivered by the crews
All things a nation needs to use:
They bring us meat, they bring us drink,
They bring more thoughts than we can think.

If England holds the world in fee
And tribute draws from every sea-
is every shore, is every wave,
More free thereby, or more a slave?

Published 1911