The Frontier Line

The Frontier Line is a poem written by Arthur Conan Doyle first published in The Speaker: The Liberal Review on 12 march 1892.

Editions

• in The Speaker (12 march 1892 [UK])
• in The Gazette (Montreal) (2 april 1892 [CA])
• in Songs of Action (1898-1916, Smith, Elder & Co. [UK])
• in Songs of Action (august 1898, Charles Scribner's Sons [US])
• in Songs of Action (september 1898, Doubleday, Page & Co. [US])
• The Frontier Line (1901, J. Curwen & Sons Choruses for Equal Voices No. 577 [UK])
• in Songs of Action (1918-1920, John Murray [UK])
• in The Poems of Arthur Conan Doyle (1922-1928, John Murray [UK])

The Frontier Line

The Speaker (12 march 1892, p. 322)

The Speaker version

What marks the frontier line?
Thou man of India, say!
Is it the Himalayas sheer,
The rocks and valleys of Cashmere,
Or Indus as she seeks the sea
From Attock south to Kurrachee?
"Not that! Not that!"
Then answer me, I pray,
What marks the frontier line?
What marks the frontier line?
Thou man of Burmah, speak!
Is it traced from Mandalay,
And down the borders of Cathay?
From Bhamo south to Kiang-mai,
And where the buried rubies lie?
"Not that! Not that!"
Then tell me what I seek,
What marks the frontier line?
What marks the frontier line?
Thou Africander, say!
Is it shown by Zulu kraal,
By Drakensberg or winding Vaal,
Or where the Shiré waters seek
Their outlet east at Mozambique?
"Not that! Not that!"
Then once again I pray
What marks the frontier line?
What marks the frontier line?
Thou man of Egypt, tell!
Is it traced on Luxor's sand,
Where Karnak's painted pillars stand,
Or where the river runs between
The Ethiop and Bishareen?
"Not that! Not that!
By neither stream nor well
We mark the frontier line.
"But be it east or west
One common sign we bear;
The tongue may change, the soil, the sky,
But where your English brothers lie
The mouldered cross, the nameless grave,
Still fringe the flowing Saxon wave,
'Tis that! 'Tis where
They lie, the men who traced it there,
That marks the frontier line!"

A. Conan Doyle

Collected volumes version

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

---

• Back to Complete Works
• Back to Conan Doyle