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 […]
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 […]