The Female of the Species by Rudyard Kipling
1911 When the Himalayan peasant meets the he-bear in his pride, He shouts to scare the monster, who will often turn aside. But the she-bear thus accosted rends the peasant tooth and nail. For the female of the species is more deadly than the male. When Nag the basking cobra hears the careless foot of […]
The Fall of Jock Gillespie by Rudyard Kipling
This fell when dinner-time was done — ‘Twixt the first an’ the second rub — That oor mon Jock cam’ hame again To his rooms ahist the Club. An’ syne he laughed, an’ syne he sang, An’ syne we thocht him fou, An’ syne he trumped his partner’s trick, An’ garred his partner rue. Then […]
The Fairies’ Siege by Rudyard Kipling
I have been given my charge to keep– Well have I kept the same! Playing with strife for the most of my life, But this is a different game. I’11 not fight against swords unseen, Or spears that I cannot view– Hand him the keys of the place on your knees– ‘Tis the Dreamer whose […]
The Fabulists by Rudyard Kipling
When all the world would keep a matter hid, Since Truth is seldom Friend to any crowd, Men write in Fable, as old AEsop did, Jesting at that which none will name aloud. And this they needs must do, or it will fall Unless they please they are not heard at all. When desperate Folly […]
The Explorer by Rudyard Kipling
There’s no sense in going further — it’s the edge of cultivation,” So they said, and I believed it — broke my land and sowed my crop — Built my barns and strung my fences in the little border station Tucked away below the foothills where the trails run out and stop. Till a voice, […]
The Explanation by Rudyard Kipling
Love and Death once ceased their strife At the Tavern of Man’s Life. Called for wine, and threw — alas! — Each his quiver on the grass. When the bout was o’er they found Mingled arrows strewed the ground. Hastily they gathered then Each the loves and lives of men. Ah, the fateful dawn deceived! […]
The English Flag by Rudyard Kipling
Above the portico a flag-staff, bearing the Union Jack, remained fluttering in the flames for some time, but ultimately when it fell the crowds rent the air with shouts, and seemed to see significance in the incident. — DAILY PAPERS. Winds of the World, give answer! They are whimpering to and fro — And what […]
The Egg-Shell by Rudyard Kipling
The wind took off with the sunset– The fog came up with the tide, When the Witch of the North took an Egg-shell With a little Blue Devil inside. “Sink,” she said, “or swim,” she said, “It’s all you will bet from me. And that is the finish of him!” she said And the Egg-shell […]
The ‘eathen by Rudyard Kipling
The ‘eathen in ‘is blindness bows down to wood an’ stone; ‘E don’t obey no orders unless they is ‘is own; ‘E keeps ‘is side-arms awful: ‘e leaves ’em all about, An’ then comes up the Regiment an’ pokes the ‘eathen out. All along o’ dirtiness, all along o’ mess, All along o’ doin’ things […]
The Dove of Dacca by Rudyard Kipling
1892 The freed dove flew to the Rajah’s tower– Fled from the slaughter of Moslem kings– And the thorns have covered the city of Guar. Dove–dove–oh, homing dove! Little white traitor, with woe on thy wings! The Rajah of Dacca rode under the wall; He set in his bosom a dove of flight– “If she […]
The Destroyers by Rudyard Kipling
The strength of twice three thousand horse That seeks the single goal; The line that holds the rending course, The hate that swings the whole; The stripped hulls, slinking through the gloom, At gaze and gone again — The Brides of Death that wait the groom — The Choosers of the Slain! Offshore where sea […]
The Derelict by Rudyard Kipling
And reports the derelict Mary Pollock still at sea. SHIPPING NEWS. I was the staunchest of our fleet Till the sea rose beneath our feet Unheralded, in hatred past all measure. Into his pits he stamped my crew, Buffeted, blinded, bound and threw, Bidding me eyeless wait upon his pleasure. Man made me, and my […]
The Deep-Sea Cables by Rudyard Kipling
The wrecks dissolve above us; their dust drops down from afar — Down to the dark, to the utter dark, where the blind white sea-snakes are. There is no sound, no echo of sound, in the deserts of the deep, Or the great gray level plains of ooze where the shell-burred cables creep. Here in […]
The Declaration of London by Rudyard Kipling
We were all one heart and one race When the Abbey trumpets blew. For a moment’s breathing-space We had forgotten you. Now you return to your honoured place Panting to shame us anew. We have walked with the Ages dead– With our Past alive and ablaze. And you bid us pawn our honour for bread, […]
The Dead King by Rudyard Kipling
(EDWARD VII.) 1910 Who in the Realm to-day lays down dear life for the sake of a land more dear? And, unconcerned for his own estate, toils till the last grudged sands have run? Let him approach. It is proven here Our King asks nothing of any man more than Our King himself, has done. […]
The Day’s Work by Rudyard Kipling
We now, held in captivity, Spring to our bondage nor grieve– See now, how it is blesseder, Brothers, to give than receive! Keep trust, wherefore we were made, Paying the debt that we owe; For a clean thrust, and the shear of the blade, Will carry us where would go. The Ship that Found Herself. […]
The Craftsman by Rudyard Kipling
Once, after long-drawn revel at The Mermaid, He to the overbearing Boanerges Jonson, uttered (if half of it were liquor, Blessed be the vintage!) Saying how, at an alehouse under Cotswold, He had made sure of his very Cleopatra, Drunk with enormous, salvation-con temning Love for a tinker. How, while he hid from Sir Thomas’s […]
The Conundrum of the Workshops by Rudyard Kipling
When the flush of a new-born sun fell first on Eden’s green and gold, Our father Adam sat under the Tree and scratched with a stick in the mould; And the first rude sketch that the world had seen was joy to his mighty heart, Till the Devil whispered behind the leaves, “It’s pretty, but […]
The Comforters by Rudyard Kipling
Until thy feet have trod the Road Advise not wayside folk, Nor till thy back has borne the Load Break in upon the broke. Chase not with undesired largesse Of sympathy the heart Which, knowing her own bitterness, Presumes to dwell apart. Employ not that glad hand to raise The God-forgotten head To Heaven and […]
The Coastwise Lights by Rudyard Kipling
Our brows are bound with spindrift and the weed is on our knees; Our loins are battered ‘neath us by the swinging, smoking seas. From reef and rock and skerry — over headland, ness, and voe — The Coastwise Lights of England watch the ships of England go! Through the endless summer evenings, on the […]
The Children’s Song by Rudyard Kipling
Puck of Poock’s Hills Land of our Birth, we pledge to thee Our love and toil in the years to be; When we are grown and take our place As men and women with our race. Father in Heaven who lovest all, Oh, help Thy children when they call; That they may build from age […]
The Captive by Rudyard Kipling
Not with an outcry to Allah nor any complaining He answered his name at the muster and stood to the chaining. When the twin anklets were nipped on the leg-bars that held them, He brotherly greeted the armourers stooping to weld them. Ere the sad dust of the marshalled feet of the chain-gang swallowed him, […]
The Burial by Rudyard Kipling
1904(C. F. Rhodes, buried in the Matoppos, April 10, 1902) When that great Kings return to clay, Or Emperors in their pride, Grief of a day shall fill a day, Because its creature died. But we — we reck on not with those Whom the mere Fates ordain, This Power that wrought on us and […]
The Broken Men by Rudyard Kipling
For things we never mention, For Art misunderstood — For excellent intention That did not turn to good; From ancient tales’ renewing, From clouds we would not clear — Beyond the Law’s pursuing We fled, and settled here. We took no tearful leaving, We bade no long good-byes; Men talked of crime and thieving, Men […]
The Betrothed by Rudyard Kipling
“You must choose between me and your cigar.” — BREACH OF PROMISE CASE, CIRCA 1885. Open the old cigar-box, get me a Cuba stout, For things are running crossways, and Maggie and I are out. We quarrelled about Havanas — we fought o’er a good cheroot, And I knew she is exacting, and she says […]
The Benefactors by Rudyard Kipling
Ah! What avails the classic bent And what the cultured word, Against the undoctored incident That actually occurred? And what is Art whereto we press Through paint and prose and rhyme– When Nature in her nakedness Defeats us every time? It is not learning, grace nor gear, Nor easy meat and drink, But bitter pinch […]
The Bell Buoy by Rudyard Kipling
1896 They christened my brother of old– And a saintly name he bears– They gave him his place to hold At the head of the belfry-stairs, Where the minister-towers stand And the breeding kestrels cry. Would I change with my brother a league inland? (Shoal! ‘Ware shoal!) Not I! In the flush of the hot […]
The Ballad of the Red Earl by Rudyard Kipling
(It is not for them to criticize too minutely the methods the Irish followed, though they might deplore some of their results. During the past few years Ireland had been going through what was tantamount to a revolution. — EARL SPENCER) Red Earl, and will ye take for guide The silly camel-birds, That ye bury […]
The Ballad of the King’s Mercy by Rudyard Kipling
Abdhur Rahman, the Durani Chief, of him is the story told. His mercy fills the Khyber hills — his grace is manifold; He has taken toll of the North and the South — his glory reacheth far, And they tell the tale of his charity from Balkh to Kandahar. Before the old Peshawur Gate, where […]
The Ballad of the King’s Jest by Rudyard Kipling
When spring-time flushes the desert grass, Our kafilas wind through the Khyber Pass. Lean are the camels but fat the frails, Light are the purses but heavy the bales, As the snowbound trade of the North comes down To the market-square of Peshawur town. In a turquoise twilight, crisp and chill, A kafila camped at […]
The Ballad of Fisher’s Boarding-House by Rudyard Kipling
‘T was Fultah Fisher’s boarding-house, Where sailor-men reside, And there were men of all the ports From Mississip to Clyde, And regally they spat and smoked, And fearsomely they lied. They lied about the purple Sea That gave them scanty bread, They lied about the Earth beneath, The Heavens overhead, For they had looked too […]
The Ballad of East and West by Rudyard Kipling
Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet, Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God’s great Judgment Seat; But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth, When two strong men stand face to face, tho’ they come from the ends of the earth! Kamal […]
The Answer by Rudyard Kipling
A Rose, in tatters on the garden path, Cried out to God and murmured ‘gainst His Wrath, Because a sudden wind at twilight’s hush Had snapped her stem alone of all the bush. And God, Who hears both sun-dried dust and sun, Had pity, whispering to that luckless one, “Sister, in that thou sayest We […]
Tarrant Moss by Rudyard Kipling
I closed and drew for my love’s sake That now is false to me, And I slew the Reiver of Tarrant Moss And set Dumeny free. They have gone down, they have gone down, They are standing all arow– Twenty knights in the peat-water, That never struck a blow! Their armour shall not dull nor […]
Sussex by Rudyard Kipling
God gave all men all earth to love, But, since our hearts are small Ordained for each one spot should prove Beloved over all; That, as He watched Creation’s birth, So we, in godlike mood, May of our love create our earth And see that it is good. So one shall Baltic pines content, As […]
Study of an Elevation, In Indian Ink by Rudyard Kipling
Potiphar Gubbins, C.E. Stands at the top of the tree; And I muse in my bed on the reasons that led To the hoisting of Potiphar G. Potiphar Gubbins, C.E., Is seven years junior to Me; Each bridge that he makes either buckles or breaks, And his work is as rough as he. Potiphar Gubbins, […]
South Africa by Rudyard Kipling
1903 Lived a woman wonderful, (May the Lord amend her!) Neither simple, kind, nor true, But her Pagan beauty drew Christian gentlemen a few Hotly to attend her. Christian gentlemen a few From Berwick unto Dover; For she was South Africa, Ana she was South Africa, She was Our South Africa, Africa all over! Half […]
Song of the Wise Children by Rudyard Kipling
1902 When the darkened Fifties dip to the North, And frost and the fog divide the air, And the day is dead at his breaking-forth, Sirs, it is bitter beneath the Bear! Far to Southward they wheel and glance, The million molten spears of morn — The spears of our deliverance That shine on the […]
Song of the Red War-Boat by Rudyard Kipling
Shove off from the wharf-edge! Steady! Watch for a smooth! Give way! If she feels the lop already She’ll stand on her head in the bay. It’s ebb–it’s dusk–it’s blowing– The shoals are a mile of white, But ( snatch her along! ) we’re going To find our master to-night. For we hold that in […]
Song of Diego Valdez by Rudyard Kipling
The God of Fair Beginnings Hath prospered here my hand — The cargoes of my lading, And the keels of my command. For out of many ventures That sailed with hope as high, My own have made the better trade, And Admiral am I. To me my King’s much honour, To me my people’s love […]