Arrival Day themes and contributions to East Indian literature

An artist’s rendering of the SS Hesperus (Wikimedia Commons photo)

They Came In Ships

They came in ships

From far across the seas

Britain, colonising the East in India

Transporting her chains from Chota Nagpur and the Ganges Plain.

Westwards came the Whitby,

Like the Hesperus

Alike the island-bound Fatel Rozack.

 

Wooden missions of imperialist design.

Human victims of Her Majesty’s victory.