Chapter Headings by Rudyard Kipling
Plane Tales From the Hills Look, you have cast out Love! What Gods are these You bid me please? The Three in One, the One in Three ? Not so! To my own Gods I go. It may be they shall give me greater ease Than your cold Christ and tangled Trinities. Lispeth. When the […]
Chant-Pagan by Rudyard Kipling
Me that ‘ave been what I’ve been — Me that ‘ave gone where I’ve gone — Me that ‘ave seen what I’ve seen — ‘Ow can I ever take on With awful old England again, An’ ‘ouses both sides of the street, And ‘edges two sides of the lane, And the parson an’ gentry between, […]
Certain Maxims Of Hafiz by Rudyard Kipling
I. If It be pleasant to look on, stalled in the packed serai, Does not the Young Man try Its temper and pace ere he buy? If She be pleasant to look on, what does the Young Man say? “Lo! She is pleasant to look on, give Her to me to-day!” II. Yea, though a […]
Cells by Rudyard Kipling
I’ve a head like a concertina: I’ve a tongue like a button-stick: I’ve a mouth like an old potato, and I’m more than a little sick, But I’ve had my fun o’ the Corp’ral’s Guard: I’ve made the cinders fly, And I’m here in the Clink for a thundering drink and blacking the Corporal’s eye. […]
Cain and Abel by Rudyard Kipling
Cain and Abel were brothers born. (Koop-la! Come along, cows!) One raised cattle and one raised corn. (Koop-la! Come along! Co-hoe!) And Cain he farmed by the river-side, So he did not care how much it dried. For he banked, and he sluiced, and he ditched and he led (And the Corn don’t care for […]
By the Hoof of the Wild Goat by Rudyard Kipling
By the Hoof of the Wild Goat uptossed From the cliff where she lay in the Sun Fell the Stone To the Tarn where the daylight is lost, So she fell from the light of the Sun And alone! Now the fall was ordained from the first With the Goat and the Cliff and the […]
Butterflies by Rudyard Kipling
Eyes aloft, over dangerous places, The children follow the butterflies, And, in the sweat of their upturned faces, Slash with a net at the empty skies. So it goes they fall amid brambles, And sting their toes on the nettle-tops, Till, after a thousand scratches and scrambles, They wipe their brows and the hunting stops. […]
Brookland Road by Rudyard Kipling
I was very well pleased with what I knowed, I reckoned myself no fool– Till I met with a maid on the Brookland Road, That turned me back to school. Low down-low down! Where the liddle green lanterns shine– O maids, I’ve done with ‘ee all but one, And she can never’ be mine! ‘Twas […]
Bridge-Guard in the Karroo by Rudyard Kipling
1901 “. . . and will supply details to guard the Blood River Bridge.” District Orders-Lines of Communication, South African War. Sudden the desert changes, The raw glare softens and clings, Till the aching Oudtshoorn ranges Stand up like the thrones of Kings — Ramparts of slaughter and peril — Blazing, amazing, aglow — ‘Twixt […]
Boots by Rudyard Kipling
We’re foot–slog–slog–slog–sloggin’ over Africa — Foot–foot–foot–foot–sloggin’ over Africa — (Boots–boots–boots–boots–movin’ up an’ down again!) There’s no discharge in the war! Seven–six–eleven–five–nine-an’-twenty mile to-day — Four–eleven–seventeen–thirty-two the day before — (Boots–boots–boots–boots–movin’ up an’ down again!) There’s no discharge in the war! Don’t–don’t–don’t–don’t–look at what’s in front of you. (Boots–boots–boots–boots–movin’ up an’ down again); Men–men–men–men–men go mad […]
Blue Roses by Rudyard Kipling
Roses red and roses white Plucked I for my love’s delight. She would none of all my posies– Bade me gather her blue roses. Half the world I wandered through, Seeking where such flowers grew. Half the world unto my quest Answered me with laugh and jest. Home I came at wintertide, But my silly […]
Bill ‘Awkins by Rudyard Kipling
“‘As anybody seen Bill ‘Awkins?” “Now ‘ow in the devil would I know?” “‘E’s taken my girl out walkin’, An’ I’ve got to tell ‘im so — Gawd — bless ‘im! I’ve got to tell ‘im so.” “D’yer know what ‘e’s like, Bill ‘Awkins?” “Now what in the devil would I care?” “‘E’s the livin’, […]
Belts by Rudyard Kipling
There was a row in Silver Street that’s near to Dublin Quay, Between an Irish regiment an’ English cavalree; It started at Revelly an’ it lasted on till dark: The first man dropped at Harrison’s, the last forninst the Park. For it was: — “Belts, belts, belts, an’ that’s one for you!” An’ it was […]
Before a Midnight Breaks in Storm by Rudyard Kipling
1903 Before a midnight breaks in storm, Or herded sea in wrath, Ye know what wavering gusts inform The greater tempest’s path? Till the loosed wind Drive all from mind, Except Distress, which, so will prophets cry, O’ercame them, houseless, from the unhinting sky. Ere rivers league against the land In piratry of flood, Ye […]
Beast and Man in India by Rudyard Kipling
Written for John Lockwood Kipling’s They killed a Child to please the Gods In Earth’s young penitence, And I have bled in that Babe’s stead Because of innocence. I bear the sins of sinful men That have no sin of my own, They drive me forth to Heaven’s wrath Unpastured and alone. I am the […]
As the Bell Clinks by Rudyard Kipling
As I left the Halls at Lumley, rose the vision of a comely Maid last season worshipped dumbly, watched with fervor from afar; And I wondered idly, blindly, if the maid would greet me kindly. That was all — the rest was settled by the clinking tonga-bar. Yea, my life and hers were coupled by […]
Army Headquarters by Rudyard Kipling
Ahasuerus Jenkins of the “Operatic Own,” Was dowered with a tenor voice of super-Santley tone. His views on equitation were, perhaps, a trifle queer. He had no seat worth mentioning, but oh! he had an ear. He clubbed his wretched company a dozen times a day; He used to quit his charger in a parabolic […]
Arithmetic on the Frontier by Rudyard Kipling
A great and glorious thing it is To learn, for seven years or so, The Lord knows what of that and this, Ere reckoned fit to face the foe — The flying bullet down the Pass, That whistles clear: “All flesh is grass.” Three hundred pounds per annum spent On making brain and body meeter […]
Anchor Song by Rudyard Kipling
Heh! Walk her round. Heave, ah heave her short again! Over, snatch her over, there, and hold her on the pawl. Loose all sail, and brace your yards back and full — Ready jib to pay her off and heave short all! Well, ah fare you well; we can stay no more with you, my […]
An Old Song by Rudyard Kipling
So long as ‘neath the Kalka hills The tonga-horn shall ring, So long as down the Solon dip The hard-held ponies swing, So long as Tara Devi sees The lights of Simla town, So long as Pleasure calls us up, Or Duty drivese us down, If you love me as I love you What pair […]
An Imperial Rescript by Rudyard Kipling
Now this is the tale of the Council the German Kaiser decreed, To ease the strong of their burden, to help the weak in their need, He sent a word to the peoples, who struggle, and pant, and sweat, That the straw might be counted fairly and the tally of bricks be set. The Lords […]
An Astrologer’s Song by Rudyard Kipling
To the Heavens above us O look and behold The Planets that love us All harnessed in gold! What chariots, what horses Against us shall bide While the Stars in their courses Do fight on our side? All thought, all desires, That are under the sun, Are one with their fires, As we also are […]
An American by Rudyard Kipling
If the Led Striker call it a strike, Or the papers call it a war, They know not much what I am like, Nor what he is, My Avatar. Throuh many roads, by me possessed, He shambles forth in cosmic guise; He is the Jester and the Jest, And he the Text himself applies. The […]
A Truthful Song by Rudyard Kipling
THE BRICKLAYER: I tell this tale, which is strictly true, Just by way of convincing you How very little, since things were made, Things have altered in building trade. A year ago, come the middle of March, We was building flats near the Marble Arch, When a thin young man with coal-black hair Came up […]
A Tree Song by Rudyard Kipling
(A. D. 1200) Of all the trees that grow so fair, Old England to adorn, Greater are none beneath the Sun, Than Oak, and Ash, and Thorn. Sing Oak, and Ash, and Thorn, good sirs, (All of a Midsummer morn!) Surely we sing no little thing, In Oak, and Ash, and Thorn! Oak of the […]
A Three-Part Song by Rudyard Kipling
I’m just in love with all these three, The Weald and the Marsh and the Down country. Nor I don’t know which I love the most, The Weald or the Marsh or the white Chalk coast! I’ve buried my heart in a ferny hill, Twix’ a liddle low shaw an’ a great high gill. Oh […]
A Tale of Two Cities by Rudyard Kipling
Where the sober-colored cultivator smiles On his byles; Where the cholera, the cyclone, and the crow Come and go; Where the merchant deals in indigo and tea, Hides and ghi; Where the Babu drops inflammatory hints In his prints; Stands a City — Charnock chose it — packed away Near a Bay — By the […]
A Song of Travel by Rudyard Kipling
Where’s the lamp that Hero lit Once to call Leander home? Equal Time hath shovelled it ‘Neath the wrack of Greece and Rome. Neither wait we any more That worn sail which Argo bore. Dust and dust of ashes close All the Vestal Virgin’s care; And the oldest altar shows But an older darkness there. […]
A Song of the White Men by Rudyard Kipling
1899 Now, this is the cup the White Men drink When they go to right a wrong, And that is the cup of the old world’s hate– Cruel and strained and strong. We have drunk that cup–and a bitter, bitter cup– And tossed the dregs away. But well for the world when the White Men […]
A Song of the English by Rudyard Kipling
Fair is our lot — O goodly is our heritage! (Humble ye, my people, and be fearful in your mirth!) For the Lord our God Most High He hath made the deep as dry, He hath smote for us a pathway to the ends of all the Earth! Yea, though we sinned — and our […]
A Song of Kabir by Rudyard Kipling
Oh, light was the world that he weighed in his hands! Oh, heavy the tale of his fiefs and his lands! He has gone from the guddee and put on the shroud, And departed in guise of bairagi avowed! Now the white road to Delhi is mat for his feet. The sal and the kikar […]
A Song In Storm by Rudyard Kipling
Be well assured that on our side The abiding oceans fight, Though headlong wind and heaping tide Make us their sport to-night. By force of weather, not of war, In jeopardy we steer. Then welcome Fate’s discourtesy Whereby it shall appear How in all time of our distress, And our deliverance too, The game is […]
A Song at Cock-Crow by Rudyard Kipling
The first time that Peter denied his Lord He shrank from the cudgel, the scourge and the cord, But followed far off to see what they would do, Till the cock crew–till the cock crew– After Gethsemane, till the cock crew! The first time that Peter denied his Lord ‘Twas only a maid in the […]
A Smuggler’s Song by Rudyard Kipling
If you wake at midnight, and hear a horse’s feet, Don’t go drawing back the blind, or looking in the street. Them that ask no questions isn’t told a lie. Watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by! Five and twenty ponies, Trotting through the dark — Brandy for the Parson, ‘Baccy for […]
A Ripple Song by Rudyard Kipling
Once red ripple came to land In the golden sunset burning– Lapped against a maiden’s hand, By the ford returning. Dainty foot and gentle breast– Here, across, be glad and rest. “Maiden, wait,” the ripplee saith; “Wait awhile, for I am Death!” “Where my lover calls I go– Shame it were to treat him coldly– […]
A Recantation by Rudyard Kipling
1917 (To Lyde of the Music Halls) What boots it on the Gods to call? Since, answered or unheard, We perish with the Gods and all Things made–except the Word. Ere certain Fate had touched a heart By fifty years made cold, I judged thee, Lyde, and thy art O’erblown and over-bold. But he–but he, […]
A Pict Song by Rudyard Kipling
Rome never looks where she treads. Always her heavy hooves fall On our stomachs, our hearts or our heads; And Rome never heeds when we bawl. Her sentries pass on–that is all, And we gather behind them in hordes, And plot to reconquer the Wall, With only our tongues for our swords. We are the […]
A Nativity by Rudyard Kipling
1914-18 The Babe was laid in the Manger Between the gentle kine — All safe from cold and danger — “But it was not so with mine, (With mine! With mine!) “Is it well with the child, is it well?” The waiting mother prayed. “For I know not how he fell, And I know not […]
A General Summary by Rudyard Kipling
We are very slightly changed From the semi-apes who ranged India’s Prehistoric clay; He that drew the longest bow Ran his brother down, you know, As we run men down to-tday. “Dowb,” the first of all his race, Met the Mammoth face to face On the lake or in the cave: Stole the steadiest canoe, […]
A Code of Morals by Rudyard Kipling
Now Jones had left his new-wed bride to keep his house in order, And hied away to the Hurrum Hills above the Afghan border, To sit on a rock with a heliograph; but ere he left he taught His wife the working of the Code that sets the miles at naught. And Love had made […]