The Sacrifice of Er-Heb by Rudyard Kipling
Er-Heb beyond the Hills of Ao-Safai Bears witness to the truth, and Ao-Safai Hath told the men of Gorukh. Thence the tale Comes westward o’er the peaks to India. The story of Bisesa, Armod’s child, — A maiden plighted to the Chief in War, The Man of Sixty Spears, who held the Pass That leads […]
The Rupaiyat of Omar Kal’vin by Rudyard Kipling
Now the New Year, reviving last Year’s Debt, The Thoughtful Fisher casteth wide his Net; So I with begging Dish and ready Tongue Assail all Men for all that I can get. Imports indeed are gone with all their Dues — Lo! Salt a Lever that I dare not use, Nor may I ask the […]
The Rowers by Rudyard Kipling
The banked oars fell an hundred strong, And backed and threshed and ground, But bitter was the rowers’ song As they brought the war-boat round. They had no heart for the rally and roar That makes the whale-bath smoke — When the great blades cleave and hold and leave As one on the racing stroke. […]
The Rhyme of the Three Sealers by Rudyard Kipling
Away by the lands of the Japanee Where the paper lanterns glow And the crews of all the shipping drink In the house of Blood Street Joe, At twilight, when the landward breeze Brings up the harbour noise, And ebb of Yokohama Bay Swigs chattering through the buoys, In Cisco’s Dewdrop Dining-Rooms They tell the […]
The Rhyme of the Three Captains by Rudyard Kipling
This ballad appears to refer to one of the exploits of the notorious Paul Jones, the American pirate. It is founded on fact. . . . At the close of a winter day, Their anchors down, by London town, the Three Great Captains lay; And one was Admiral of the North from Solway Firth to […]
The Return by Rudyard Kipling
Peace is declared, and I return To ‘Ackneystadt, but not the same; Things ‘ave transpired which made me learn The size and meanin’ of the game. I did no more than others did, I don’t know where the change began; I started as a average kid, I finished as a thinkin’ man. If England was […]
The Reformers by Rudyard Kipling
1901 Not in the camp his victory lies Or triumph in the market-place, Who is his Nation’s sacrifice To turn the judgement from his race. Happy is he who, bred and taught By sleek, sufficing Circumstance — Whose Gospel was the apparelled thought, Whose Gods were Luxury and Chance — Seese, on the threshold of […]
The Recall by Rudyard Kipling
I am the land of their fathers, In me the virtue stays. I will bring back my children, After certain days. Under their feet in the grasses My clinging magic runs. They shall return as strangers. They shall remain as sons. Over their heads in the branches Of their new-bought, ancient trees, I weave an […]
The Rabbi’s Song by Rudyard Kipling
“The House Surgeon”–Actions and Reactions 2 Samuel XIV. 14. If Thought can reach to Heaven, On Heaven let it dwell, For fear the Thought be given Like power to reach to Hell. For fear the desolation And darkness of thy mind Perplex an habitation Which thou hast left behind. Let nothing linger after– No whimpering […]
The Quesion by Rudyard Kipling
Brethren, how shall it fare with me When the war is laid aside, If it be proven that I am he For whom a world has died? If it be proven that all my good, And the greater good I will make, Were purchased me by a multitude Who suffered for my sake? That I […]
The Queen’s Men by Rudyard Kipling
Valour and Innocence Have latterly gone hence To certain death by certain shame attended. Envy–ah! even to tears! — The fortune of their years Which, though so few, yet so divinely ended. Scarce had they lifted up Life’s full and fiery cup, Than they had set it down untouched before them. Before their day arose […]
The Puzzler by Rudyard Kipling
The Celt in all his variants from Builth to Ballyhoo, His mental processes are plain–one knows what he will do, And can logically predicate his finish by his start; But the English–ah, the English!–they are quite a race apart. Their psychology is bovine, their outlook crude and raw. They abandon vital matters to be tickled […]
The Prodigal Son by Rudyard Kipling
Here come I to my own again, Fed, forgiven and known again, Claimed by bone of my bone again And cheered by flesh of my flesh. The fatted calf is dressed for me, But the husks have greater zest for me, I think my pigs will be best for me, So I’m off to the […]
The Pro-Consuls by Rudyard Kipling
The overfaithful sword returns the user His heart’s desire at price of his heart’s blood. The clamour of the arrogant accuser Wastes that one hour we needed to make good. This was foretold of old at our outgoing; This we accepted who have squandered, knowing, The strength and glory of our reputations, At the day’s […]
The Prayer of Miriam Cohen by Rudyard Kipling
From the wheel and the drift of Things Deliver us, Good Lord, And we will face the wrath of Kings, The faggot and the sword! Lay not thy Works before our eyes Nor vex us with thy Wars, Lest we should feel the straining skies O’ertrod by trampling stars. Hold us secure behind the gates […]
The Law of the Jungle by Rudyard Kipling
(From The Jungle Book) Now this is the Law of the Jungle — as old and as true as the sky; And the Wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the Wolf that shall break it must die. As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk the Law runneth forward and back — For the […]
The Last Rhyme of True Thomas by Rudyard Kipling
The King has called for priest and cup, The King has taken spur and blade To dub True Thomas a belted knight, And all for the sake o’ the songs he made. They have sought him high, they have sought him low, They have sought him over down and lea; They have found him by […]
The Last of the Light Brigade by Rudyard Kipling
1891 There were thirty million English who talked of England’s might, There were twenty broken troopers who lacked a bed for the night. They had neither food nor money, they had neither service nor trade; They were only shiftless soldiers, the last of the Light Brigade. They felt that life was fleeting; they kuew not […]
The Last Department by Rudyard Kipling
Twelve hundred million men are spread About this Earth, and I and You Wonder, when You and I are dead, “What will those luckless millions do?” None whole or clean, ” we cry, “or free from stain Of favour.” Wait awhile, till we attain The Last Department where nor fraud nor fools, Nor grade nor […]
The Land by Rudyard Kipling
When Julius Fabricius, Sub-Prefect of the Weald, In the days of Diocletian owned our Lower River-field, He called to him Hobdenius-a Briton of the Clay, Saying: “What about that River-piece for layin” in to hay?” And the aged Hobden answered: “I remember as a lad My father told your father that she wanted dreenin’ bad. […]
The Lament of the Border Cattle Thief by Rudyard Kipling
O woe is me for the merry life I led beyond the Bar, And a treble woe for my winsome wife That weeps at Shalimar. They have taken away my long jezail, My shield and sabre fine, And heaved me into the Central jail For lifting of the kine. The steer may low within the […]
The Ladies by Rudyard Kipling
I’ve taken my fun where I’ve found it; I’ve rouged an’ I’ve ranged in my time; I’ve ‘ad my pickin’ o’ seethearts, An’ four o’ the lot was prime. One was an ‘arf-caste widow, One was awoman at Prome, One was the wife of a jemadar-sais An’ one is a girl at ‘ome. Now I […]
The Kingdom by Rudyard Kipling
Now we are come to our Kingdom, And the State is thus and thus; Our legions wait at the Palace gate– Little it profits us. Now we are come to our Kingdom! Now we are come to our Kingdom, And the Crown is ours to take– With shame and fear for our daily cheer, And […]
The Jester by Rudyard Kipling
There are three degrees of bliss At the foot of Allah’s Throne And the highest place is his Who saves a brother’s soul At peril of his own. There is the Power made known! There are three degrees of bliss In Garden of Paradise, And the second place is his Who saves his brother’s soul […]
The Jacket by Rudyard Kipling
Through the Plagues of Egyp’ we was chasin’ Arabi, Gettin’ down an’ shovin’ in the sun; An’ you might ‘ave called us dirty, an’ you might ha’ called us dry, An’ you might ‘ave ‘eard us talkin’ at the gun. But the Captain ‘ad ‘is jacket, an’ the jacket it was new — (‘Orse Gunners, […]
THE IRISH GUARDS by Rudyard Kipling
1918 We’re not so old in the Army List, But we’re not so young at our trade, For we had the honour at Fontenoy Of meeting the Guards’Brigade. ‘Twas Lally, Dillon, Bulkeley, Clare, And Lee that led us then, And after a hundred and seventy years We’re fighting for France again! Old Days! The wild […]
The Instructor by Rudyard Kipling
At times when under cover I ‘ave said, To keep my spirits up an’ raise a laugh, ‘Earin ‘im pass so busy over-‘ead– Old Nickel-Neck, ‘oo is n’t on the Staff — “There’s one above is greater than us all” Before ‘im I ‘ave seen my Colonel fall, An ‘watched ‘im write my Captain’s epitaph, […]
The Hyaenas by Rudyard Kipling
After the burial-parties leave And the baffled kites have fled; The wise hyaenas come out at eve To take account of our dead. How he died and why he died Troubles them not a whit. They snout the bushes and stones aside And dig till they come to it. They are only resolute they shall […]
The Houses by Rudyard Kipling
‘Twixt my house and thy house the pathway is broad, In thy house or my house is half the world’s hoard; By my house and thy house hangs all the world’s fate, On thy house and my house lies half the world’s hate. For my house and thy house no help shall we find Save […]
The Heritage by Rudyard Kipling
Our Fathers in a wondrous age, Ere yet the Earth was small, Ensured to us a heritage, And doubted not at all That we the children of their heart, Which then did beat so high, In later rime should play like part For our posterity. A thousand years they steadfast built, To ‘vantage us and […]
The Greek National Anthem by Rudyard Kipling
We knew thee of old, Oh divinely restored, By the light of thine eyes And the light of they Sword. From the graves of our slain Shall thy valour prevail As we greet thee again — Hail, Liberty! Hail! Long time didst thou dwell Mid the peoples that mourn, Awaiting some voice That should bid […]
The Grave of the Hundered Head by Rudyard Kipling
There’s a widow in sleepy Chester Who weeps for her only son; There’s a grave on the Pabeng River, A grave that the Burmans shun, And there’s Subadar Prag Tewarri Who tells how the work was done. A Snider squibbed in the jungle, Somebody laughed and fled, And the men of the First Shikaris Picked […]
The Gods of the Copybook Headings by Rudyard Kipling
1919 As I pass through my incarnations in every age and race, Make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market-Place. ‘eering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall, And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all. Ne were living in trees when they met us. They showed […]
The Gipsy Trail by Rudyard Kipling
The white moth to the closing bine, The bee to the opened clover, And the gipsy blood to the gipsy blood Ever the wide world over. Ever the wide world over, lass, Ever the trail held true, Over the world and under the world, And back at the last to you. Out of the dark […]
The Gift of the Sea by Rudyard Kipling
The dead child lay in the shroud, And the widow watched beside; And her mother slept, and the Channel swept The gale in the teeth of the tide. But the mother laughed at all. “I have lost my man in the sea, And the child is dead. Be still,” she said, “What more can ye […]
The Galley-Slave by Rudyard Kipling
Oh gallant was our galley from her caren steering-wheel To her figurehead of silver and her beak of hammered steel; The leg-bar chafed the ankle and we gasped for cooler air, But no galley on the waters with our galley could compare! Our bulkheads bulged with cotton and our masts were stepped in gold — […]
The Floods by Rudyard Kipling
The rain it rains without a stay In the hills above us, in the hills; And presently the floods break way Whose strength is in the hills. The trees they suck from every cloud, The valley brooks they roar aloud– Bank-high for the lowlands, lowlands, Lowlands under the hills! The first wood down is sere […]
The Flight by Rudyard Kipling
1930 When the grey geese heard the Fool’s tread Too near to where they lay, They lifted neither voice nor head, But took themselves away. No water broke, no pinion whirred- There went no warning call. The steely, sheltering rushes stirred A little–that was all. Only the osiers understood, And the drowned meadows spied What […]
The First Chantey by Rudyard Kipling
1896 Mine was the woman to me, darkling I found her: Haling her dumb from the camp, held her and bound her. Hot rose her tribe on our track ere I had proved her; Hearing her laugh in the gloom, greatly I loved her. Swift through the forest we ran, none stood to guard us, […]
The Fires by Rudyard Kipling
Men make them fires on the hearth Each under his roof-tree, And the Four Winds that rule the earth They blow the smoke to me. Across the high hills and the sea And all the changeful skies, The Four Winds blow the smoke to me Till the tears are in my eyes. Until the tears […]