Mesopotamia by Rudyard Kipling
1917 They shall not return to us, the resolute, the young, The eager and whole-hearted whom we gave: But the men who left them thriftily to die in their own dung, Shall they come with years and honour to the grave? They shall not return to us; the strong men coldly slain In sight of […]
Merrow Down by Rudyard Kipling
There runs a road by Merrow Down– A grassy track to-day it is– An hour out Guildford town, Above the river Wey it is. Here, when they heard the hors-bells ring, The ancient Britons dressed and rode To which the dark Phoenicians bring Their goods along the Western Road. Yes, here, or hereabouts, they met […]
Mary’s Son by Rudyard Kipling
If you stop to find out what your wages will be And how they will clothe and feed you, Willie, my son, don’t you go on the Sea. For the Sea will never need you. If you ask for the reason of every command, And argue with people about you, Willie, my son, don’t you […]
Mary, Pity Women! by Rudyard Kipling
You call yourself a man, For all you used to swear, An’ Leave me, as you can, My certain shame to bear? I’ear! You do not care — You done the worst you know. I ‘ate you, grinnin’ there…. Ah, Gawd, I love you so! Nice while it lasted, an’ now it is over — […]
Many Inventions by Rudyard Kipling
‘Less you want your toes trod of you’d better get back at once, For the bullocks are walking two by two, The byles are walking two by two, And the elephants bring the guns. Ho! Yuss! Great-big-long-black-forty-pounder guns. Jiggery-jolty to and fro, Each as big as a launch in tow — Blind-dumb-broad-breeched–beggars o’ battering-guns! My […]
Mandalay by Rudyard Kipling
By the old Moulmein Pagoda, lookin’ eastward to the sea, There’s a Burma girl a-settin’, and I know she thinks o’ me; For the wind is in the palm-trees, and the temple-bells they say: “Come you back, you British soldier; come you back to Mandalay!” Come you back to Mandalay, Where the old Flotilla lay: […]
Lukannon by Rudyard Kipling
I met my mates in the morning (and oh, but I am old!) Where roaring on the ledges the summer ground-swell rolled; I heard them lift the chorus that dropped the breakers’ song — The beaches of Lukannon — two million voices strong! The song of pleasant stations beside the salt lagoons, The song of […]
Lord Roberts by Rudyard Kipling
1914 He passed in the very battle-smoke Of the war that he had descried. Three hundred mile of cannon spoke When the Master-Gunner died. He passed to the very sound of the guns; But, before his eye grew dim, He had seen the faces of the sons Whose sires had served with him, He had […]
Loot by Rudyard Kipling
If you’ve ever stole a pheasant-egg be’ind the keeper’s back, If you’ve ever snigged the washin’ from the line, If you’ve ever crammed a gander in your bloomin’ ‘aversack, You will understand this little song o’ mine. But the service rules are ‘ard, an’ from such we are debarred, For the same with English morals […]
Lichtenberg by Rudyard Kipling
Smells are surer than sounds or sights To make your heart-strings crack– They start those awful voices o’ nights That whisper, ” Old man, come back! “ That must be why the big things pass And the little things remain, Like the smell of the wattle by Lichtenberg, Riding in, in the rain. There was […]
L’Envoi by Rudyard Kipling
There’s a whisper down the field where the year has shot her yield, And the ricks stand gray to the sun, Singing: — “Over then, come over, for the bee has quit the clover, And your English summer’s done.” You have heard the beat of the off-shore wind, And the thresh of the deep-sea rain; […]
La Nuit Blanche by Rudyard Kipling
A much-discerning Public hold The Singer generally sings And prints and sells his past for gold. Whatever I may here disclaim, The very clever folk I sing to Will most indubitably cling to Their pet delusion, just the same. I had seen, as the dawn was breaking And I staggered to my rest, Tari Devi […]
Kitchener’s School by Rudyard Kipling
1898 Being a translation of the song that was made by a Mohammedanschoolmaster of Bengal Infantry (some time on service at Suakim)when he heard that Kitchener was taking money from the English tobuild a Madrissa for Hubshees — or a college for the Sudanese. Oh Hubshee, carry your shoes in your hand and bow your […]
Kim by Rudyard Kipling
Unto whose use the pregnant suns are poised, With idiot moons and stars retracting stars? Creep thou between — thy coming’s all unnoised. Heaven hath her high, as Earth her baser, wars. Heir to these tumults, this affright, that fray (By Adam’s, fathers’, own, sin bound alway); Peer up, draw out thy horoscope and say […]
Justice by Rudyard Kipling
October, 1918 Across a world where all men grieve And grieving strive the more, The great days range like tides and leave Our dead on every shore. Heavy the load we undergo, And our own hands prepare, If we have parley with the foe, The load our sons must bear. Before we loose the word […]
Jubal and Tubal Cain by Rudyard Kipling
Canadian Jubal sang of the Wrath of God And the curse of thistle and thorn– But Tubal got him a pointed rod, And scrabbled the earth for corn. Old–old as that early mould, Young as the sprouting grain– Yearly green is the strife between Jubal and Tubal Cain! Jubal sang of the new-found sea, And […]
In the Neolithic Age by Rudyard Kipling
1895 I the Neolithic Age savage warfare did I wage For food and fame and woolly horses’ pelt. I was singer to my clan in that dim, red Dawn of Man, And I sang of all we fought and feared and felt. Yea, I sang as now I sing, when the Prehistoric spring Made the […]
In the Matter of One Compass by Rudyard Kipling
When, foot to wheel and back to wind, The helmsman dare not look behind, But hears beyond his compass-light, The blind bow thunder through the night, And, like a harpstring ere it snaps, The rigging sing beneath the caps; Above the shriek of storm in sail Or rattle of the blocks blown free, Set for […]
In Springtime by Rudyard Kipling
My garden blazes brightly with the rose-bush and the peach, And the koil sings above it, in the siris by the well, From the creeper-covered trellis comes the squirrel’s chattering speech, And the blue jay screams and flutters where the cheery sat-bhai dwell. But the rose has lost its fragrance, and the koil’s note is […]
If by Rudyard Kipling
If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too: If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies, Or being […]
I Keep Six Honest… by Rudyard Kipling
I keep six honest serving-men (They taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When And How and Where and Who. I send them over land and sea, I send them east and west; But after they have worked for me, I give them all a rest. I let them rest […]
Hymn Before Action by Rudyard Kipling
The earth is full of anger, The seas are dark with wrath, The Nations in their harness Go up against our path: Ere yet we draw the blade, Jehovah of the Thunders, Lord God of Battles, aid! High lust and froward bearing, Proud heart, rebellious brow — Deaf ear and soul uncaring, We seek My […]
Hunting-Song of the Seeonee Pack by Rudyard Kipling
(From The Jungle Book) As the dawn was breaking the Sambhur belled Once, twice, and again! And a doe leaped up — and a doe leaped up From the pond in the wood where the wild deer sup. This I, scouting alone, beheld, Once, twice, and again! As the dawn was breaking the Sambhur belled […]
Helen all Alone by Rudyard Kipling
“In the Same Boat”–A Diversity of Creatures There was darkness under Heaven For an hour’s space– Darkness that we knew was given Us for special grace. Sun and noon and stars were hid, God had left His Throne, When Helen came to me, she did, Helen all alone! Side by side (because our fate Damned […]
Harp Song of the Dane Women by Rudyard Kipling
What is a woman that you forsake her, And the hearth-fire and the home-acre, To go with the old grey Widow-maker? She has no house to lay a guest in– But one chill bed for all to rest in, That the pale suns and the stray bergs nest in. She has no strong white arms […]
Half-Ballad of Waterval by Rudyard Kipling
(Non-commissioned Officers in Charge of Prisoners) When by the labor of my ‘ands I’ve ‘elped to pack a transport tight With prisoners for foreign lands, I ain’t transported with delight. I know it’s only just an’ right, But yet it somehow sickens me, For I ‘ave learned at Waterval The meanin’ of captivity. Be’ind the […]
Gunga Din by Rudyard Kipling
You may talk o’ gin and beer When you’re quartered safe out ‘ere, An’ you’re sent to penny-fights an’ Aldershot it; But when it comes to slaughter You will do your work on water, An’ you’ll lick the bloomin’ boots of ‘im that’s got it. Now in Injia’s sunny clime, Where I used to spend […]
Great-Heart by Rudyard Kipling
Theodore Roosevelt “The interpreter then called for a man-servant of his, one Great-Heart.”–Bunyan’s’ Pilgrim’s Process Concerning brave Captains Our age hath made known For all men to honour, One standeth alone, Of whom, o’er both oceans, Both peoples may say: “Our realm is diminished With Great-Heart away.” In purpose unsparing, In action no less, The […]
Gethsemane by Rudyard Kipling
1914-18 The Garden called Gethsemane In Picardy it was, And there the people came to see The English soldiers pass. We used to pass — we used to pass Or halt, as it might be, And ship our masks in case of gas Beyond Gethsemane. The Garden called Gethsemane, It held a pretty lass, But […]
Gentlmen-Rankers by Rudyard Kipling
To the legion of the lost ones, to the cohort of the damned, To my brethren in their sorrow overseas, Sings a gentleman of England cleanly bred, machinely crammed, And a trooper of the Empress, if you please. Yea, a trooper of the forces who has run his own six horses, And faith he went […]
Gehazi by Rudyard Kipling
1915 Whence comest thou, Gehazi, So reverend to behold, In scarlet and in ermines And chain of England’s gold?” “From following after Naaman To tell him all is well, Whereby my zeal hath made me A Judge in Israel.” Well done; well done, Gehazi! Stretch forth thy ready hand, Thou barely ‘scaped from judgment, Take […]
Fuzzy-Wuzzy by Rudyard Kipling
(Soudan Expeditionary Force) We’ve fought with many men acrost the seas, An’ some of ’em was brave an’ some was not: The Paythan an’ the Zulu an’ Burmese; But the Fuzzy was the finest o’ the lot. We never got a ha’porth’s change of ‘im: ‘E squatted in the scrub an’ ‘ocked our ‘orses, ‘E […]
Ford o’ Kabul River by Rudyard Kipling
Kabul town’s by Kabul river — Blow the bugle, draw the sword — There I lef’ my mate for ever, Wet an’ drippin’ by the ford. Ford, ford, ford o’ Kabul river, Ford o’ Kabul river in the dark! There’s the river up and brimmin’, an’ there’s ‘arf a squadron swimmin’ ‘Cross the ford o’ […]
For To Admire by Rudyard Kipling
The Injian Ocean sets an’ smiles So sof’, so bright, so bloomin’ blue; There aren’t a wave for miles an’ miles Excep’ the jiggle from the screw. The ship is swep’, the day is done, The bugle’s gone for smoke and play; An’ black agin’ the settin’ sun The Lascar sings, “Hum deckty hai!” [“I’m […]
For All We Have And Are by Rudyard Kipling
For all we have and are, For all our children’s fate, Stand up and take the war. The Hun is at the gate! Our world has passed away In wantonness o’erthrown. There is nothing left to-day But steel and fire and stone! Tough all we knew depart, The old Commandments stand: — “In courage keep […]
Follow Me ‘ome by Rudyard Kipling
There was no one like ‘im, ‘Orse or Foot, Nor any o’ the Guns I knew; An’ because it was so, why, o’ course ‘e went an’ died, Which is just what the best men do. So it’s knock out your pipes an’ follow me! An’ it’s finish up your swipes an’ follow me! Oh, […]
Farewell and adieu… by Rudyard Kipling
1914-18 Farewell and adieu to you, Harwich Ladies, Farewell and adieu to you, ladies ashore! For we’ve received orders to work to the eastward Where we hope in a short time to strafe ’em some more. We’ll duck and we’ll dive like little tin turtles, We’ll duck and we’ll dive underneath the North Seas, Until […]
Evarra And His Gods by Rudyard Kipling
Read here: This is the story of Evarra — man — Maker of Gods in lands beyond the sea. Because the city gave him of her gold, Because the caravans brought turquoises, Because his life was sheltered by the King, So that no man should maim him, none should steal, Or break his rest with […]
England’s Answer by Rudyard Kipling
Truly ye come of The Blood; slower to bless than to ban; Little used to lie down at the bidding of any man. Flesh of the flesh that I bred, bone of the bone that I bare; Stark as your sons shall be — stern as your fathers were. Deeper than speech our love, stronger […]
Eddi’s Service by Rudyard Kipling
Eddi, priest of St. Wilfrid In his chapel at Manhood End, Ordered a midnight service For such as cared to attend. But the Saxons were keeping Christmas, And the night was stormy as well. Nobody came to service, Though Eddi rang the bell. “‘Wicked weather for walking,” Said Eddi of Manhood End. “But I must […]