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diff --git a/15529-8.txt b/15529-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5178c15 --- /dev/null +++ b/15529-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6782 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Songs from Books, by Rudyard Kipling + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Songs from Books + +Author: Rudyard Kipling + +Release Date: April 3, 2005 [EBook #15529] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SONGS FROM BOOKS *** + + + + +Produced by Paul Murray, S.R. Ellison and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +SONGS FROM BOOKS + +BY + +RUDYARD KIPLING + + + +MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED + +ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON + +1914 + + + + +COPYRIGHT + +_All rights reserved, including that of +translation into foreign languages, +including the Scandinavian_ + + +_First Edition October_ 1913 + +_Reprinted October (twice), November_ 1913, 1914 + + + + +_PREFACE_ + + +_I have collected in this volume practically all the +verses and chapter-headings scattered through my books. +In several cases where only a few lines of verse were +originally used, I have given in full the song, etc., from +which they were taken._ + +_RUDYARD KIPLING._ + + + + +'_CITIES AND THRONES AND POWERS_' + + +_Cities and Thrones and Powers, + Stand in Time's eye, +Almost as long as flowers, + Which daily die. +But, as new buds put forth + To glad new men, +Out of the spent and unconsidered Earth, + The Cities rise again. + +This season's Daffodil, + She never hears, +What change, what chance, what chill, + Cut down last year's: +But with bold countenance, + And knowledge small, +Esteems her seven days' continuance + To be perpetual. + +So Time that is o'er-kind, + To all that be, +Ordains us e'en as blind, + As bold as she: +That in our very death, + And burial sure, +Shadow to shadow, well persuaded, saith, + 'See how our works endure!'_ + + + + +CONTENTS + +SONG BOOK PAGE +Angutivaun Taina Second Jungle Book 292 +Astrologer's Song, An Rewards and Fairies 164 +Ballad of Minepit Shaw, The Rewards and Fairies 266 +Bee Boy's Song, The Puck of Pook's Hill 172 +Bees and the Flies, The Actions and Reactions 89 +Blue Roses Light that Failed 225 +British-Roman Song, A Puck 96 +Brookland Road Rewards and Fairies 10 +Butterflies Traffics and Discoveries 228 +'By the Hoof of the Wild Goat' Plain Tales 217 +Captive, The Traffics and Discoveries 71 +Carol, A Rewards and Fairies 41 +_Chapter Headings_ Beast and Man, etc. 132 + " " Jungle Books 245 + " " Just-So Stories 182 + " " Naulahka, Light that Failed 78 + " " Plain Tales 30 +Charm, A Rewards and Fairies 26 +Children's Song, The Puck 143 +Chil's Song Second Jungle Book 69 +'Cities and Thrones and Powers' Puck vii +City of Sleep, The The Day's Work 198 +Cold Iron Rewards and Fairies 36 +Cuckoo Song Heathfield Parish Memoirs 24 +Darzee's Chaunt Jungle Book 299 +Dedication, A Soldiers Three 235 +Eddi's Service Rewards and Fairies 45 +Egg-shell, The Traffics and Discoveries 254 +Fairies' Siege, The Kim 50 +Four Angels, The Actions and Reactions 301 +Frankie's Trade Rewards and Fairies 285 +Gallio's Song Actions and Reactions 86 +Gow's Watch Kim 206 +Hadramauti Plain Tales 75 +Harp Song of the Dane Women Puck 60 +Heriot's Ford Light that Failed 283 +Heritage, The The Empire and the Century 130 +Hunting Song of the +Seeonee Pack Jungle Book 294 +If-- Rewards and Fairies 149 +Jester, The Collected 156 +Jubal and Tubal Cain Letters to the Family 112 +Juggler's Song, The Naulahka 288 +Kingdom, The Naulahka 15 +King Henry VII. and the +Shipwrights Rewards and Fairies 272 +King's Task, The Traffics and Discoveries 256 +Law of the Jungle, The Second Jungle Book 120 +Looking-Glass, The Rewards and Fairies 193 +Love Song of Har Dyal, The Plain Tales 234 +'Lukannon' Jungle Book 161 +Merrow Down Just-So Stories 176 +Morning Song in the Jungle Second Jungle Book 223 +Mother o' Mine Light that Failed 237 +Mowgli's Song against People Second Jungle Book 241 +My Lady's Law Naulahka 230 +'My New-Cut Ashlar' Life's Handicap 43 +Necessitarian, The Traffics and Discoveries 154 +New Knighthood, The Actions and Reactions 54 +Nursing Sister, The Naulahka 232 +Old Mother Laidinwool Puck 179 +Only Son, The Many Inventions 238 +'Our Fathers also' Traffics and Discoveries 94 +'Our Fathers of Old' Rewards and Fairies 127 +Outsong in the Jungle Second Jungle Book 56 +Parade Song of the Camp Animals Jungle Book 145 +Pict Song, A Puck 98 +'Poor Honest Men' Rewards and Fairies 105 +Poseidon's Law Traffics and Discoveries 263 +'Power of the Dog, The' Actions and Reactions 168 +Prairie, The Letters to the Family 28 +Prayer, The Kim 303 +Prayer of Miriam Cohen, The Many Inventions 202 +Prodigal Son, The Kim 151 +Prophets at Home Puck 111 +Pock's Song Puck 3 +Puzzler, The Actions and Reactions 73 +Queen's Men, The Rewards and Fairies 196 +Rabbi's Song, The Actions and Reactions 170 +Recall, The Actions and Reactions 1 +Return of the Children, The Traffics and Discoveries 174 +'Rimini' Puck 102 +Ripple Song, A Second Jungle Book 226 +Road Song of the _Bandar_-_Log_ Jungle Book 92 +Romulus and Remus Letters to the Family 243 +Run of the Downs, The Rewards and Fairies 9 +Sack of the Gods, The Naulahka 12 +School Song, A Stalky & Co. 116 +'Servant When He Reigneth, A' Letters to the Family 124 +Shiv and the Grasshopper Jungle Book 48 +Sir Richard's Song Puck 19 +Smuggler's Song, A Puck 269 +Song of Kabir, A Second Jungle Book 39 +Song of the Fifth River Puck 140 +Song of the Little Hunter Second Jungle Book 204 +Song of the Men's Side Rewards and Fairies 296 +Song of the Red War-Boat Rewards and Fairies 219 +Song of Travel, A Letters to the Family 157 +Song to Mithras, A Puck 52 +St. Helena Lullaby, A Rewards and Fairies 66 +Stranger, The Letters to the Family 100 +Tarrant Moss Plain Tales 17 +Thorkild's Song Puck 290 +Thousandth Man, The Rewards and Fairies 62 +Three-Part Song, A Puck 8 +Tree Song, A Puck 21 +Truthful Song, A Rewards and Fairies 266 +Two-Sided Man, The Kim 159 +Voortrekker, The Collected 114 +Way through the Woods, The Rewards and Fairies 6 +Wet Litany, The Traffics and Discoveries 277 +'When the Great Ark' Letters to the Family 109 +Widower, The Various 200 +Winners, The Story of the Gadsbys 64 +Wishing Caps, The Kim 215 + + + + +INDEX TO FIRST LINES + + PAGE +About the time that taverns shut, 279 +A farmer of the Augustan Age, 89 +After the sack of the City, when Rome was sunk to a name, 256 +All day long to the judgment-seat, 86 +All the world over, nursing their scars, 138 +Alone upon the housetops to the North, 234 +And if ye doubt the tale I tell, 136 +'And some are sulky, while some will plunge', 32 +And they were stronger hands than mine, 235 +As Adam lay a-dreaming beneath the Apple Tree, 301 +As the dawn was breaking the Sambhur belled, 294 +A stone's throw out on either hand, 34 +At the hole where he went in, 249 + +Beat off in our last fight were we?, 79 +Because I sought it far from men, 80 +Bees! Bees! Hark to your bees!, 172 +Before my spring I garnered autumn's gain, 135 +Between the waving tufts of jungle-grass, 133 +By the Hoof of the Wild Goat uptossed, 217 + +China-going P. and O.'s, 189 +Cities and Thrones and Powers, vii +Cry 'Murder' in the market-place, and each, 31 + +Dark children of the mere and marsh, 133 + +Eddi, priest of St. Wilfrid, 45 +Ere Mor the Peacock flutters, ere the Monkey People cry, 204 +Excellent herbs had our fathers of old, 127 +Eyes aloft, over dangerous places, 228 + +For a season there must be pain, 200 +For our white and our excellent nights--for the nights + of swift running, 248 +For the sake of him who showed, 56 +From the wheel and the drift of Things, 202 + +'Gold is for the mistress--silver for the maid', 36 +Go, stalk the red deer o'er the heather, 31 + +Harry, our King in England, from London town is gone, 272 +He drank strong waters and his speech was coarse, 35 +Here come I to my own again, 151 +Here we go in a flung festoon, 92 +His spots are the joy of the Leopard: his horns are the + Buffalo's pride, 245 +'How far is St. Helena from a little child at play?', 66 + +I am the land of their fathers, 1 +I am the Most Wise Baviaan, saying in most wise tones, 184 +I closed and drew for my love's sake, 17 +'If I have taken the common clay', 84 +If I were hanged on the highest hill, 237 +I followed my Duke ere I was a lover, 19 +If Thought can reach to Heaven, 170 +If you can keep your head when all about you, 149 +If you wake at midnight, and hear a horse's feet, 269 +I have been given my charge to keep, 50 +I keep six honest serving-men, 185 +I know not in Whose hands are laid, 154 +I met my mates in the morning (and oh, but I am old!), 161 +I'm just in love with all these three, 8 +In the daytime, when she moved about me, 34 +'I see the grass shake in the sun for leagues on either + hand', 28 +I tell this tale, which is strictly true, 266 +It was not in the open fight, 33 +I've never sailed the Amazon, 188 +I was very well pleased with what I knowed, 10 +I will let loose against you the fleet-footed vines, 241 +I will remember what I was, I am sick of rope and chain, 251 + +Jubal sang of the Wrath of God, 112 + +Land of our Birth, we pledge to thee, 143 +'Less you want your toes trod off you'd better get back + at once', 138 +'Let us now praise famous men', 116 +Life's all getting and giving, 215 +Look, you have cast out Love! What Gods are these, 30 + +Man goes to Man! Cry the challenge through the Jungle!, 249 +Mithras, God of the Morning, our trumpets waken the Wall!, 52 +Much I owe to the Land that grew, 159 +My Brother kneels, so saith Kabir, 303 +My father's father saw it not, 96 +My new-cut ashlar takes the light, 43 + +Neither the harps nor the crowns amused, nor the cherubs' + dove-winged races, 174 +Not though you die to-night, O Sweet, and wail, 32 +Not with an outcry to Allah nor any complaining, 71 +Now Chil the Kite brings home the night, 245 +Now it is not good for the Christian's health to hustle + the Aryan brown, 79 +Now this is the Law of the Jungle--as old and as true as + the sky, 120 +Now we are come to our Kingdom, 15 + +Of all the trees that grow so fair, 21 +Oh! hush thee, my baby, the night is behind us, 250 +Oh, light was the world that he weighed in his hands!, 39 +Oh, little did the Wolf-Child care, 243 +Old Horn to All Atlantic said, 285 + +'Old Mother Laidinwool had nigh twelve months been dead', 179 +Once a ripple came to land, 226 +Once we feared The Beast--when he followed us we ran, 296 +One man in a thousand, Solomon says, 62 +One moment past our bodies cast, 223 +Our Fathers in a wondrous age, 130 +Our gloves are stiff with the frozen blood, 292 +Our Lord Who did the Ox command, 41 +Our sister sayeth such and such, 232 +Over the edge of the purple down, 198 + +Pit where the buffalo cooled his hide, 35 +Prophets have honour all over the Earth, 111 +Pussy can sit by the fire and sing, 190 + +Queen Bess was Harry's daughter. Stand forward partners + all!, 193 + +Ride with an idle whip, ride with an unused heel, 33 +Rome never looks where she treads, 98 +Roses red and roses white, 225 + +See you the ferny ride that steals, 3 +She dropped the bar, she shot the bolt, she fed the fire + anew, 238 +Shiv, who poured the harvest and made the winds to blow, 48 +Shove off from the wharf-edge! Steady!, 219 +Singer and tailor am I, 299 +So we settled it all when the storm was done, 83 +'Stopped in the straight when the race was his own!', 31 +Strangers drawn from the ends of the earth, jewelled and + plumed were we, 12 + +Take of English earth as much, 26 +Tell it to the locked-up trees, 24 +The beasts are very wise, 143 +The Camel's hump is an ugly lump, 182 +The Celt in all his variants from Builth to Ballyhoo, 73 +The doors were wide, the story saith, 135 +The gull shall whistle in his wake, the blind wave break + in fire, 114 +The lark will make her hymn to God, 84 +The Law whereby my lady moves, 230 +The night we felt the earth would move, 253 +The People of the Eastern Ice, they are melting like the + snow, 252 +There are three degrees of bliss, 156 +There is pleasure in the wet, wet clay, 81 +There is sorrow enough in the natural way, 168 +There runs a road by Merrow Down, 176 +There's a convict more in the Central Jail, 137 +There's no wind along these seas, 290 +There was a strife 'twixt man and maid, 81 +There was never a Queen like Balkis, 191 +There were three friends that buried the fourth, 85 +These are the Four that are never content, that have + never been filled since the Dews began, 248 +These were my companions going forth by night, 69 +The Stranger within my gate, 100 +The stream is shrunk--the pool is dry, 246 +The torn boughs trailing o'er the tusks aslant, 133 +The Weald is good, the Downs are best, 9 +The wind took off with the sunset, 254 +The wolf-cub at even lay hid in the corn, 84 +The World hath set its heavy yoke, 32 +They burnt a corpse upon the sand, 33 +They killed a child to please the Gods, 132 +They shut the road through the woods, 6 +This I saw when the rites were done, 79 +This is the mouth-filling song of the race that was run + by a Boomer, 186 +Three things make earth unquiet, 124 +Thrones, Powers, Dominions, Peoples, Kings, 94 +To-night, God knows what thing shall tide, 34 +To the Heavens above us, 164 + +Unto whose use the pregnant suns are poised, 136 + +Valour and Innocence, 196 +Veil them, cover them, wall them round, 247 + +We be the Gods of the East, 82 +We lent to Alexander the strength of Hercules, 145 +We meet in an evil land, 78 +What is a woman that you forsake her, 60 +What is the moral? Who rides may read, 64 +What of the hunting, hunter bold?, 247 +'What's that that hirples at my side?', 283 +When a lover hies abroad, 81 +When first by Eden Tree, 140 +When I left home for Lalage's sake, 102 +When the cabin port-holes are dark and green, 182 +When the drums begin to beat, 288 +When the Earth was sick and the Skies were grey, 30 +When the Great Ark, in Vigo Bay, 109 +When the robust and Brass-bound Man commissioned first + for sea, 263 +When the water's countenance, 277 +When ye say to Tabaqui, 'My Brother!' when ye call the + Hyena to meat, 252 +Where's the lamp that Hero lit 157 +Who gives him the Bath? 54 +Who knows the heart of the Christian? How does he reason? 75 + +Yet at the last, ere our spearmen had found him 85 +You mustn't swim till you're six weeks old 250 +Your jar of Virginny 105 +Your tiercel's too long at hack, Sir. He's no eyass 206 + + + + +THE RECALL + + +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 incantation +And draw them to my knees. + +Scent of smoke in the evening. +Smell of rain in the night, +The hours, the days and the seasons, +Order their souls aright; + +Till I make plain the meaning +Of all my thousand years-- +Till I fill their hearts with knowledge. +While I fill their eyes with tears. + + + + +PUCK'S SONG + + +See you the ferny ride that steals +Into the oak-woods far? +O that was whence they hewed the keels +That rolled to Trafalgar. + +And mark you where the ivy clings +To Bayham's mouldering walls? +O there we cast the stout railings +That stand around St. Paul's. + +See you the dimpled track that runs +All hollow through the wheat? +O that was where they hauled the guns +That smote King Philip's fleet. + +Out of the Weald, the secret Weald, +Men sent in ancient years, +The horse-shoes red at Flodden Field, +The arrows at Poitiers. + +See you our little mill that clacks, +So busy by the brook? +She has ground her corn and paid her tax +Ever since Domesday Book. + +See you our stilly woods of oak? +And the dread ditch beside? +O that was where the Saxons broke +On the day that Harold died. + +See you the windy levels spread +About the gates of Rye? +O that was where the Northmen fled, +When Alfred's ships came by. + +See you our pastures wide and lone, +Where the red oxen browse? +O there was a City thronged and known. +Ere London boasted a house. + +And see you, after rain, the trace +Of mound and ditch and wall? +O that was a Legion's camping-place, +When Cæsar sailed from Gaul. + +And see you marks that show and fade, +Like shadows on the Downs? +O they are the lines the Flint Men made, +To guard their wondrous towns. + +Trackway and Camp and City lost, +Salt Marsh where now is corn; +Old Wars, old Peace, old Arts that cease, +And so was England born! + +She is not any common Earth, +Water or wood or air, +But Merlin's Isle of Gramarye, +Where you and I will fare. + + + + +THE WAY THROUGH THE WOODS + + +They shut the road through the woods +Seventy years ago. +Weather and rain have undone it again, +And now you would never know +There was once a road through the woods +Before they planted the trees. +It is underneath the coppice and heath, +And the thin anemones. +Only the keeper sees +That, where the ring-dove broods. +And the badgers roll at ease, +There was once a road through the woods. + +Yet, if you enter the woods +Of a summer evening late, +When the night-air cools on the trout-ringed pools +Where the otter whistles his mate. +(They fear not men in the woods. +Because they see so few) +You will hear the beat of a horse's feet, +And the swish of a skirt in the dew, +Steadily cantering through +The misty solitudes, +As though they perfectly knew +The old lost road through the woods ... +But there is no road through the woods! + + + + +A THREE-PART SONG + + +I'm just in love with all these three, +The Weald and the Marsh and the Down countrie; +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 hop-bine yaller an' wood-smoke blue, +I reckon you'll keep her middling true! + +I've loosed my mind for to out and run +On a Marsh that was old when Kings begun. +Oh Romney Level and Brenzett reeds, +I reckon you know what my mind needs! + +I've given my soul to the Southdown grass, +And sheep-bells tinkled where you pass. +Oh Firle an' Ditchling an' sails at sea, +I reckon you keep my soul for me! + + + + +THE RUN OF THE DOWNS + + +_The Weald is good, the Downs are best_-- +_I'll give you the run of 'em, East to West._ +Beachy Head and Winddoor Hill, +They were once and they are still, +Firle, Mount Caburn and Mount Harry +Go back as far as sums'll carry. +Ditchling Beacon and Chanctonbury Ring, +They have looked on many a thing, +And what those two have missed between 'em +I reckon Truleigh Hill has seen 'em. +Highden, Bignor and Duncton Down +Knew Old England before the Crown. +Linch Down, Treyford and Sunwood +Knew Old England before the Flood. +And when you end on the Hampshire side-- +Butser's old as Time and Tide. +_The Downs are sheep, the Weald is corn,_ +_You be glad you are Sussex born!_ + + + + +BROOKLAND ROAD + + +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 right in the middest of a hot June night, +With thunder duntin' round, +And I see'd her face by the fairy light +That beats from off the ground. + +She only smiled and she never spoke, +She smiled and went away; +But when she'd gone my heart was broke, +And my wits was clean astray. + +O stop your ringing and let me be-- +Let be, O Brookland bells! +You'll ring Old Goodman[A] out of the sea, +Before I wed one else! + +Old Goodman's Farm is rank sea-sand, +And was this thousand year: +But it shall turn to rich plough land +Before I change my dear. + +O, Fairfield Church is water-bound +From autumn to the spring; +But it shall turn to high hill ground +Before my bells do ring. + +O, leave me walk on the Brookland Road, +In the thunder and warm rain-- +O, leave me look where my love goed, +And p'raps I'll see her again! + + _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!_ + +[Footnote A: Earl Godwin of the Goodwin Sands?] + + + + +THE SACK OF THE GODS + + +Strangers drawn from the ends of the earth, jewelled and plumed were we. +I was Lord of the Inca race, and she was Queen of the Sea. +Under the stars beyond our stars where the new-forged meteors glow +Hotly we stormed Valhalla, a million years ago. + +_Ever 'neath high Valhalla Hall the well-tuned horns begin +When the swords are out in the underworld, and the weary Gods come in. +Ever through high Valhalla Gate the Patient Angel goes; +He opens the eyes that are blind with hate--he joins the hands of foes._ + +Dust of the stars was under our feet, glitter of stars above-- +Wrecks of our wrath dropped reeling down as we fought and we spurned and we strove. +Worlds upon worlds we tossed aside, and scattered them to and fro, +The night that we stormed Valhalla, a million years ago! + +_They are forgiven as they forgive all those dark wounds and deep, +Their beds are made on the lap of Time and they lie down and sleep. +They are forgiven as they forgive all those old wounds that bleed, +They shut their eyes from their worshippers. They sleep till the world has need._ + +She with the star I had marked for my own--I with my set desire-- +Lost in the loom of the Night of Nights--lighted by worlds afire-- +Met in a war against the Gods where the headlong meteors glow, +Hewing our way to Valhalla, a million years ago! + +_They will come back--come back again, as long as the red Earth rolls. +He never wasted a leaf or a tree. Do you think He would squander souls?_ + + + + +THE KINGDOM + + +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 a naked sword at the Council board, +And under the throne the Snake, +_Now we are come to our Kingdom!_ + +Now we are come to our Kingdom, +And the Realm is ours by right, +With shame and fear for our daily cheer, +And heaviness at night, +_Now we are come to our Kingdom!_ + +Now we are come to our Kingdom, +But my love's eyelids fall. +All that I wrought for, all that I fought for, +Delight her nothing at all. +My crown is of withered leaves, +For she sits in the dust and grieves. +_Now we are come to our Kingdom!_ + + + + +TARRANT MOSS + + +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 rust, +Their flesh shall not decay, +For Tarrant Moss holds them in trust, +Until the Judgment Day. + +Their soul went from them in their youth, +Ah God, that mine had gone, +Whenas I leaned on my love's truth +And not on my sword alone! + +Whenas I leaned on lad's belief +And not on my naked blade-- +And I slew a thief, and an honest thief, +For the sake of a worthless maid. + +They have laid the Reiver low in his place, +They have set me up on high, +But the twenty knights in the peat-water +Are luckier than I. + +And ever they give me gold and praise +And ever I mourn my loss-- +For I struck the blow for my false love's sake +And not for the Men of the Moss! + + + + +SIR RICHARD'S SONG + +(A.D. 1066) + + +I followed my Duke ere I was a lover, + To take from England fief and fee; +But now this game is the other way over-- + But now England hath taken me! + +I had my horse, my shield and banner, + And a boy's heart, so whole and free; +But now I sing in another manner-- + But now England hath taken me! + +As for my Father in his tower, + Asking news of my ship at sea; +He will remember his own hour-- + Tell him England hath taken me! + +As for my Mother in her bower, + That rules my Father so cunningly, +She will remember a maiden's power-- + Tell her England hath taken me! + +As for my Brother in Rouen City, + A nimble and naughty page is he, +But he will come to suffer and pity-- + Tell him England hath taken me! + +As for my little Sister waiting + In the pleasant orchards of Normandie, +Tell her youth is the time for mating-- + Tell her England hath taken me! + +As for my Comrades in camp and highway, + That lift their eyebrows scornfully, +Tell them their way is not my way-- + Tell them England hath taken me! + +Kings and Princes and Barons famèd, + Knights and Captains in your degree; +Hear me a little before I am blamèd-- + Seeing England hath taken me! + +Howso great man's strength be reckoned, + There are two things he cannot flee; +Love is the first, and Death is the second-- + And Love in England hath taken me! + + + + +A TREE SONG + +(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 Clay lived many a day + Or ever Æneas began; +Ash of the Loam was a lady at home + When Brut was an outlaw man. +Thorn of the Down saw New Troy Town + (From which was London born); +Witness hereby the ancientry + Of Oak, and Ash, and Thorn! + +Yew that is old in churchyard mould, + He breedeth a mighty bow; +Alder for shoes do wise men choose, + And beech for cups also. +But when ye have killed, and your bowl is spilled, + And your shoes are clean outworn, +Back ye must speed for all that ye need, + To Oak, and Ash, and Thorn! + +Ellum she hateth mankind, and waiteth + Till every gust be laid, +To drop a limb on the head of him + That anyway trusts her shade: +But whether a lad be sober or sad, + Or mellow with ale from the horn, +He will take no wrong when he lieth along + 'Neath Oak, and Ash, and Thorn! + +Oh, do not tell the Priest our plight, + Or he would call it a sin; +But--we have been out in the woods all night, + A-conjuring Summer in! + +And we bring you news by word of mouth-- + Good news for cattle and corn-- +Now is the Sun come up from the South, + With Oak, and Ash, and Thorn! + +Sing Oak, and Ash, and Thorn, good sirs + (All of a Midsummer morn)! +England shall bide till Judgment Tide, + By Oak, and Ash, and Thorn! + + + + +CUCKOO SONG + +Spring begins in Southern England on the 14th April, on +which date the Old Woman lets the Cuckoo out of her +basket at Heathfield Fair--locally known as Heffle Cuckoo +Fair. + + +Tell it to the locked-up trees, +Cuckoo, bring your song here! +Warrant, Act and Summons, please. +For Spring to pass along here! +Tell old Winter, if he doubt, +Tell him squat and square--a! +Old Woman! +Old Woman! +Old Woman's let the Cuckoo out +At Heffle Cuckoo Fair--a! + +March has searched and April tried-- +'Tisn't long to May now, +Not so far to Whitsuntide, +And Cuckoo's come to stay now! +Hear the valiant fellow shout +Down the orchard bare--a! +Old Woman! +Old Woman! +Old Woman's let the Cuckoo out +At Heffle Cuckoo Fair--a! + +When your heart is young and gay +And the season rules it-- +Work your works and play your play +'Fore the Autumn cools it! +Kiss you turn and turn about, +But my lad, beware--a! +Old Woman! +Old Woman! +Old Woman's let the Cuckoo out +At Heffle Cuckoo Fair--a! + + + + +A CHARM + + +Take of English earth as much +As either hand may rightly clutch. +In the taking of it breathe +Prayer for all who lie beneath. +Not the great nor well-bespoke, +But the mere uncounted folk +Of whose life and death is none +Report or lamentation. + Lay that earth upon thy heart, + And thy sickness shall depart! + +It shall sweeten and make whole +Fevered breath and festered soul. +It shall mightily restrain +Over-busy hand and brain. +It shall ease thy mortal strife +'Gainst the immortal woe of life, +Till thyself restored shall prove +By what grace the Heavens do move. + +Take of English flowers these-- +Spring's full-facèd primroses, +Summer's wild wide-hearted rose, +Autumn's wall-flower of the close, +And, thy darkness to illume, +Winter's bee-thronged ivy-bloom. +Seek and serve them where they bide +From Candlemas to Christmas-tide, + For these simples, used aright, + Can restore a failing sight. + +These shall cleanse and purify +Webbed and inward-turning eye; +These shall show thee treasure hid, +Thy familiar fields amid; +And reveal (which is thy need) +Every man a King indeed! + + + + +THE PRAIRIE + + +'I see the grass shake in the sun for leagues on either hand, +I see a river loop and run about a treeless land-- +An empty plain, a steely pond, a distance diamond-clear, +And low blue naked hills beyond. And what is that to fear?' + +'Go softly by that river-side or, when you would depart, +You'll find its every winding tied and knotted round your heart. +Be wary as the seasons pass, or you may ne'er outrun +The wind that sets that yellowed grass a-shiver 'neath the Sun.' + +'I hear the summer storm outblown--the drip of the grateful wheat. +I hear the hard trail telephone a far-off horse's feet. +I hear the horns of Autumn blow to the wild-fowl overhead; +And I hear the hush before the snow. And what is that to dread?' + +'Take heed what spell the lightning weaves--what charm the echoes shape-- +Or, bound among a million sheaves, your soul may not escape. +Bar home the door of summer nights lest those high planets drown +The memory of near delights in all the longed-for town.' + +'What need have I to long or fear? Now, friendly, I behold +My faithful seasons robe the year in silver and in gold. +Now I possess and am possessed of the land where I would be, +And the curve of half Earth's generous breast shall soothe and ravish me!' + + + + +CHAPTER HEADINGS + + +PLAIN 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 Earth was sick and the Skies were grey, +And the woods were rotted with rain, +The Dead Man rode through the autumn day +To visit his love again. + +His love she neither saw nor heard, +So heavy was her shame; +And tho' the babe within her stirred +She knew not that he came. + + _The Other Man._ + + +Cry 'Murder' in the market-place, and each +Will turn upon his neighbour anxious eyes +Asking;--'Art thou the man?' We hunted Cain +Some centuries ago across the world. +This bred the fear our own misdeeds maintain +To-day. + + _His Wedded Wife._ + + +Go, stalk the red deer o'er the heather, +Ride, follow the fox if you can! +But, for pleasure and profit together, +Allow me the hunting of Man-- +The chase of the Human, the search for the Soul +To its ruin--the hunting of Man. + + _Pig._ + + +'Stopped in the straight when the race was his own! +Look at him cutting it--cur to the bone!' +Ask ere the youngster be rated and chidden +What did he carry and how was he ridden? +Maybe they used him too much at the start; +Maybe Fate's weight-cloths are breaking his heart. + + _In the Pride of his Youth._ + + +'And some are sulky, while some will plunge. +_(So ho! Steady! Stand still, you!)_ +Some you must gentle, and some you must lunge. +_(There! There! Who wants to kill you?)_ +Some--there are losses in every trade-- +Will break their hearts ere bitted and made, +Will fight like fiends as the rope cuts hard, +And die dumb-mad in the breaking-yard.' + + _Thrown Away._ + + +The World hath set its heavy yoke +Upon the old white-bearded folk +Who strive to please the King. +God's mercy is upon the young, +God's wisdom in the baby tongue +That fears not anything. + + _Tod's Amendment._ + + +Not though you die to-night, O Sweet, and wail, +A spectre at my door, +Shall mortal Fear make Love immortal fail-- +I shall but love you more, +Who, from Death's House returning, give me still +One moment's comfort in my matchless ill. + + _By Word of Mouth._ + + +They burnt a corpse upon the sand-- +The light shone out afar; +It guided home the plunging boats +That beat from Zanzibar. +Spirit of Fire, where'er Thy altars rise, +Thou art the Light of Guidance to our eyes! + + _In Error._ + + +Ride with an idle whip, ride with an unused heel. +But, once in a way, there will come a day +When the colt must be taught to feel +The lash that falls, and the curb that galls, and the sting of the rowelled steel. + + _The Conversion of Aurelian McGoggin._ + + +It was not in the open fight +We threw away the sword, +But in the lonely watching +In the darkness by the ford. +The waters lapped, the night-wind blew, +Full-armed the Fear was born and grew, +From panic in the night. + + _The Rout of the White Hussars._ + + +In the daytime, when she moved about me, +In the night, when she was sleeping at my side,-- +I was wearied, I was wearied of her presence. +Day by day and night by night I grew to hate her-- +Would God that she or I had died! + + _The Bronckhorst Divorce Case._ + + +A stone's throw out on either hand +From that well-ordered road we tread, +And all the world is wild and strange; +Churel and ghoul and Djinn and sprite +Shall bear us company to-night, +For we have reached the Oldest Land +Wherein the powers of Darkness range. + + _In the House of Suddhoo._ + + +To-night, God knows what thing shall tide, +The Earth is racked and fain-- +Expectant, sleepless, open-eyed; +And we, who from the Earth were made, +Thrill with our Mother's pain. + + _False Dawn._ + + +Pit where the buffalo cooled his hide, +By the hot sun emptied, and blistered and dried; +Log in the reh-grass, hidden and lone; +Bund where the earth-rat's mounds are strown; +Cave in the bank where the sly stream steals; +Aloe that stabs at the belly and heels, +Jump if you dare on a steed untried-- +Safer it is to go wide--go wide! +_Hark, from in front where the best men ride;--_ +_'Pull to the off, boys! Wide! Go wide!'_ + + _Cupid's Arrows._ + + +He drank strong waters and his speech was coarse; +He purchased raiment and forbore to pay; +He stuck a trusting junior with a horse, +And won gymkhanas in a doubtful way. +Then, 'twixt a vice and folly, turned aside +To do good deeds and straight to cloak them, lied. + + _A Bank Fraud._ + + + + +COLD IRON + + +_'Gold is for the mistress--silver for the maid-- +Copper for the craftsman cunning at his trade.'_ +'Good!' said the Baron, sitting in his hall, +'But Iron--Cold Iron--is master of them all.' + +So he made rebellion 'gainst the King his liege, +Camped before his citadel and summoned it to siege. +'Nay!' said the cannoneer on the castle wall, +'But Iron--Cold Iron--shall be master of you all!' + +Woe for the Baron and his knights so strong, +When the cruel cannon-balls laid 'em all along! +He was taken prisoner, he was cast in thrall, +And Iron--Cold Iron--was master of it all. + +Yet his King spake kindly (Ah, how kind a Lord!) +'What if I release thee now and give thee back thy sword?' +'Nay!' said the Baron, 'mock not at my fall, +For Iron--Cold Iron--is master of men all.' + +_'Tears are for the craven, prayers are for the clown-- +Halters for the silly neck that cannot keep a crown.'_ +'As my loss is grievous, so my hope is small, +For Iron--Cold Iron--must be master of men all!' + +Yet his King made answer (few such Kings there be!) +'Here is Bread and here is Wine--sit and sup with me. +Eat and drink in Mary's Name, the whiles I do recall +How Iron--Cold Iron--can be master of men all!' + +He took the Wine and blessed It. He blessed and brake the Bread. +With His own Hands He served Them, and presently He said: +'See! These Hands they pierced with nails, outside My city wall, +Show Iron--Cold Iron--to be master of men all! + +'Wounds are for the desperate, blows are for the strong, +Balm and oil for weary hearts all cut and bruised with wrong. +I forgive thy treason--I redeem thy fall-- +For Iron--Cold Iron--must be master of men all!' + +_'Crowns are for the valiant--sceptres for the bold! +Thrones and powers for mighty men who dare to take and hold.'_ +'Nay!' said the Baron, kneeling in his hall, +'But Iron--Cold Iron--is master of man all! +Iron out of Calvary is master of men all!' + + + + +A SONG OF KABIR + + +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_ must guard him from heat. +His home is the camp, and the waste, and the crowd-- +He is seeking the Way as _bairagi_ avowed! + +He has looked upon Man, and his eyeballs are clear-- +(There was One; there is One, and but One, saith Kabir); +The Red Mist of Doing has thinned to a cloud-- +He has taken the Path for _bairagi_ avowed! + +To learn and discern of his brother the clod, +Of his brother the brute, and his brother the God, +He has gone from the council and put on the shroud +('Can ye hear?' saith Kabir), a _bairagi_ avowed! + + + + +A CAROL + + +Our Lord Who did the Ox command + To kneel to Judah's King, +He binds His frost upon the land + To ripen it for Spring-- +To ripen it for Spring, good sirs, + According to His Word; +Which well must be as ye can see-- + And who shall judge the Lord? + +When we poor fenmen skate the ice + Or shiver on the wold, +We hear the cry of a single tree + That breaks her heart in the cold-- +That breaks her heart in the cold, good sirs, + And rendeth by the board; +Which well must be as ye can see-- + And who shall judge the Lord? + +Her wood is crazed and little worth + Excepting as to burn, +That we may warm and make our mirth + Until the Spring return-- +Until the Spring return, good sirs. + When people walk abroad; +Which well must be as ye can see-- + And who shall judge the Lord? + +God bless the master of this house. + And all who sleep therein! +And guard the fens from pirate folk. + And keep us all from sin, +To walk in honesty, good sirs, + Of thought and deed and word! +Which shall befriend our latter end-- + And who shall judge the Lord? + + + + +'MY NEW-CUT ASHLAR' + + +My new-cut ashlar takes the light +Where crimson-blank the windows flare. +By my own work before the night, +Great Overseer, I make my prayer. + +If there be good in that I wrought, +Thy Hand compelled it, Master, Thine-- +Where I have failed to meet Thy Thought +I know, through Thee, the blame was mine. + +One instant's toil to Thee denied +Stands all Eternity's offence. +Of that I did with Thee to guide +To Thee, through Thee, be excellence. + +The depth and dream of my desire, +The bitter paths wherein I stray-- +Thou knowest Who hath made the Fire, +Thou knowest Who hast made the Clay. + +Who, lest all thought of Eden fade, +Bring'st Eden to the craftsman's brain-- +Godlike to muse o'er his own Trade +And manlike stand with God again! + +One stone the more swings into place +In that dread Temple of Thy worth. +It is enough that, through Thy Grace, +I saw nought common on Thy Earth. + +Take not that vision from my ken-- +Oh whatsoe'er may spoil or speed. +Help me to need no aid from men +That I may help such men as need! + + + + +EDDI'S SERVICE + +(A.D. 687) + + +Eddi, priest of St. Wilfrid + In the 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 go on with the service + For such as care to attend.' + +The altar-candles were lighted,-- + An old marsh donkey came, +Bold as a guest invited, + And stared at the guttering flame. + +The storm beat on at the windows, + The water splashed on the floor, +And a wet, yoke-weary bullock + Pushed in through the open door. + +'How do I know what is greatest, + How do I know what is least? +That is My Father's business,' + Said Eddi, Wilfrid's priest. + +'But--three are gathered together-- + Listen to me and attend. +I bring good news, my brethren!' + Said Eddi of Manhood End. + +And he told the Ox of a Manger + And a Stall in Bethlehem, +And he spoke to the Ass of a Rider, + That rode to Jerusalem. + +They steamed and dripped in the chancel, + They listened and never stirred, +While, just as though they were Bishops, + Eddi preached them The Word. + +Till the gale blew off on the marshes + And the windows showed the day, +And the Ox and the Ass together + Wheeled and clattered away. + +And when the Saxons mocked him, + Said Eddi of Manhood End, +'I dare not shut His chapel + On such as care to attend.' + + + + +SHIV AND THE GRASSHOPPER + + +Shiv, who poured the harvest and made the winds to blow, +Sitting at the doorways of a day of long ago, +Gave to each his portion, food and toil and fate, +From the King upon the _guddee_ to the Beggar at the gate. + _All things made he--Shiva the Preserver. + Mahadeo! Mahadeo! He made all,-- + Thorn for the camel, fodder for the kine, + And mother's heart for sleepy head, O little son of mine!_ + +Wheat he gave to rich folk, millet to the poor, +Broken scraps for holy men that beg from door to door; +Cattle to the tiger, carrion to the kite, +And rags and bones to wicked wolves without the wall at night. +Naught he found too lofty, none he saw too low-- +Parbati beside him watched them come and go; +Thought to cheat her husband, turning Shiv to jest-- +Stole the little grasshopper and hid it in her breast. + _So she tricked him, Shiva the Preserver. + Mahadeo! Mahadeo! turn and see! + Tall are the camels, heavy are the kine, + But this was Least of Little Things, O little son of mine!_ + +When the dole was ended, laughingly she said, +'Master, of a million mouths is not one unfed?' +Laughing, Shiv made answer, 'All have had their part, +Even he, the little one, hidden 'neath thy heart.' +From her breast she plucked it, Parbati the thief, +Saw the Least of Little Things gnawed a new-grown leaf! +Saw and feared and wondered, making prayer to Shiv, +Who hath surely given meat to all that live. + _All things made he--Shiva the Preserver. + Mahadeo! Mahadeo! He made all,-- + Thorn for the camel, fodder for the kine, + And mother's heart for sleepy head, O little son of mine!_ + + + + +THE FAIRIES' SIEGE + + +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_'ll 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 dreams come true! + +Ask for his terms and accept them at once. +Quick, ere we anger him; go! +Never before have I flinched from the guns, +But this is a different show. +_I_'ll not fight with the Herald of God +(I know what his Master can do!) +Open the gate, he must enter in state, +'Tis the Dreamer whose dreams come true! + +I'd not give way for an Emperor, +I'd hold my road for a King-- +To the Triple Crown I would not bow down-- +But this is a different thing. +_I_'ll not fight with the Powers of Air, +Sentry, pass him through! +Drawbridge let fall, it's the Lord of us all, +The Dreamer whose dreams come true! + + + + +A SONG TO MITHRAS + +(Hymn of the 30th Legion: _circa_ A.D. 350.) + + +Mithras, God of the Morning, our trumpets waken the Wall! +'Rome is above the Nations, but Thou art over all!' +Now as the names are answered and the guards are marched away, +Mithras, also a soldier, give us strength for the day! + +Mithras, God of the Noontide, the heather swims in the heat. +Our helmets scorch our foreheads, our sandals burn our feet. +Now in the ungirt hour--now ere we blink and drowse, +Mithras, also a soldier, keep us true to our vows! + +Mithras, God of the Sunset, low on the Western main-- +Thou descending immortal, immortal to rise again! +Now when the watch is ended, now when the wine is drawn, +Mithras, also a soldier, keep us pure till the dawn! + +Mithras, God of the Midnight, here where the great bull dies, +Look on thy children in darkness. Oh take our sacrifice! +Many roads thou hast fashioned--all of them lead to the Light: +Mithras, also a soldier, teach us to die aright! + + + + +THE NEW KNIGHTHOOD + + +Who gives him the Bath? +'I,' said the wet, +Rank Jungle-sweat, +'I'll give him the Bath!' + +Who'll sing the psalms? +'We,' said the Palms. +'Ere the hot wind becalms, +We'll sing the psalms.' + +Who lays on the sword? +'I,' said the Sun, +'Before he has done, +I'll lay on the sword.' + +Who fastens his belt? +'I,' said Short-Rations, +'I know all the fashions +Of tightening a belt!' + +Who gives him his spur? +'I,' said his Chief, +Exacting and brief, +'I'll give him the spur.' + +Who'll shake his hand? +'I,' said the Fever, +'And I'm no deceiver, +I'll shake his hand.' + +Who brings him the wine? +'I,' said Quinine, +'It's a habit of mine. +'_I_'ll come with the wine.' + +Who'll put him to proof? +'I,' said All Earth, +'Whatever he's worth, +I'll put to the proof.' + +Who'll choose him for Knight? +'I,' said his Mother, +'Before any other, +My very own Knight.' + +And after this fashion, adventure to seek, +Was Sir Galahad made--as it might be last week! + + + + +OUTSONG IN THE JUNGLE + + +BALOO + + +FOR the sake of him who showed +One wise Frog the Jungle-Road, +Keep the Law the Man-Pack make +For thy blind old Baloo's sake! +Clean or tainted, hot or stale, +Hold it as it were the Trail, +Through the day and through the night, +Questing neither left nor right. +For the sake of him who loves +Thee beyond all else that moves, +When thy Pack would make thee pain, +Say: 'Tabaqui sings again.' +When thy Pack would work thee ill, +Say: 'Shere Khan is yet to kill.' +When the knife is drawn to slay, +Keep the Law and go thy way. +(Root and honey, palm and spathe, +Guard a cub from harm and scathe!) +_Wood and Water, Wind and Tree, +Jungle-Favour go with thee!_ + + +KAA + +Anger is the egg of Fear-- +Only lidless eyes are clear. +Cobra-poison none may leech, +Even so with Cobra-speech. +Open talk shall call to thee +Strength, whose mate is Courtesy. +Send no lunge beyond thy length; +Lend no rotten bough thy strength. +Gauge thy gape with buck or goat, +Lest thine eye should choke thy throat +After gorging, wouldst thou sleep? +Look thy den be hid and deep, +Lest a wrong, by thee forgot, +Draw thy killer to the spot. +East and West and North and South, +Wash thy hide and close thy mouth. +(Pit and rift and blue pool-brim, +Middle-Jungle follow him!) +_Wood and Water, Wind and Tree, +Jungle-Favour go with thee!_ + + +BAGHEERA + +In the cage my life began; +Well I know the worth of Man. +By the Broken Lock that freed-- +Man-cub, 'ware the Man-cub's breed! +Scenting-dew or starlight pale, +Choose no tangled tree-cat trail. +Pack or council, hunt or den, +Cry no truce with Jackal-Men. +Feed them silence when they say: +'Come with us an easy way.' +Feed them silence when they seek +Help of thine to hurt the weak. +Make no _bandar's_ boast of skill; +Hold thy peace above the kill. +Let nor call nor song nor sign +Turn thee from thy hunting-line. +(Morning mist or twilight clear, +Serve him, Wardens of the Deer!) +_Wood and Water, Wind and Tree, +Jungle-Favour go with thee!_ + + +THE THREE + +_On the trail that thou must tread +To the thresholds of our dread, +Where the Flower blossoms red; +Through the nights when thou shalt lie +Prisoned from our Mother-sky, +Hearing us, thy loves, go by; +In the dawns when thou shalt wake +To the toil thou canst not break, +Heartsick for the Jungle's sake: +Wood and Water, Wind and Tree, +Wisdom, Strength, and Courtesy, +Jungle-Favour go with thee!_ + + + + +HARP SONG OF THE DANE WOMEN + + +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 to fold you, +But the ten-times-fingering weed to hold you-- +Out on the rocks where the tide has rolled you. + +Yet, when the signs of summer thicken, +And the ice breaks, and the birch-buds quicken, +Yearly you turn from our side, and sicken-- + +Sicken again for the shouts and the slaughters. +You steal away to the lapping waters, +And look at your ship in her winter quarters. + +You forget our mirth, and talk at the tables, +The kine in the shed and the horse in the stables-- +To pitch her sides and go over her cables. + +Then you drive out where the storm-clouds swallow, +And the sound of your oar-blades, falling hollow. +Is all we have left through the months to follow. + +Ah, what is Woman that you forsake her, +And the hearth-fire and the home-acre, +To go with the old grey Widow-maker? + + + + +THE THOUSANDTH MAN + + +One man in a thousand, Solomon says, +Will stick more close than a brother. +And it's worth while seeking him half your days +If you find him before the other. +Nine hundred and ninety-nine depend +On what the world sees in you, +But the Thousandth Man will stand your friend +With the whole round world agin you. + +'Tis neither promise nor prayer nor show +Will settle the finding for 'ee. +Nine hundred and ninety-nine of 'em go +By your looks or your acts or your glory. +But if he finds you and you find him, +The rest of the world don't matter; +For the Thousandth Man will sink or swim +With you in any water. + +You can use his purse with no more talk +Than he uses yours for his spendings, +And laugh and meet in your daily walk +As though there had been no lendings. +Nine hundred and ninety-nine of 'em call +For silver and gold in their dealings; +But the Thousandth Man he's worth 'em all. +Because you can show him your feelings. + +His wrong's your wrong, and his right's your right, +In season or out of season. +Stand up and back it in all men's sight-- +With _that_ for your only reason! +Nine hundred and ninety-nine can't bide +The shame or mocking or laughter, +But the Thousandth Man will stand by your side +To the gallows-foot--and after! + + + + +THE WINNERS + + +What is the moral? Who rides may read. +When the night is thick and the tracks are blind +A friend at a pinch is a friend indeed, +But a fool to wait for the laggard behind. +Down to Gehenna or up to the Throne, +He travels the fastest who travels alone. + +White hands cling to the tightened rein, +Slipping the spur from the booted heel, +Tenderest voices cry 'Turn again,' +Red lips tarnish the scabbarded steel, +High hopes faint on a warm hearth stone-- +He travels the fastest who travels alone. + +One may fall but he falls by himself-- +Falls by himself with himself to blame, +One may attain and to him is pelf, +Loot of the city in Gold or Fame. +Plunder of earth shall be all his own +Who travels the fastest and travels alone. + +Wherefore the more ye be holpen and stayed, +Stayed by a friend in the hour of toil, +Sing the heretical song I have made-- +His be the labour and yours be the spoil, +Win by his aid and the aid disown-- +He travels the fastest who travels alone! + + + + +A ST. HELENA LULLABY + + +'How far is St. Helena from a little child at play?' +What makes you want to wander there with all the world between? +Oh, Mother, call your son again or else he'll run away. +(_No one thinks of winter when the grass is green!_) + +'How far is St. Helena from a fight in Paris street?' +I haven't time to answer now--the men are falling fast. +The guns begin to thunder, and the drums begin to beat. +(_If you take the first step you will take the last!_) + +'How far is St. Helena from the field of Austerlitz?' +You couldn't hear me if I told--so loud the cannons roar. +But not so far for people who are living by their wits. +(_'Gay go up' means 'Gay go down' the wide world o'er!_) + +'How far is St. Helena from an Emperor of France?' +I cannot see--I cannot tell--the crowns they dazzle so. +The Kings sit down to dinner, and the Queens stand up to dance. +(_After open weather you may look for snow!_) + +'How far is St. Helena from the Capes of Trafalgar?' +A longish way--a longish way--with ten year more to run. +It's South across the water underneath a setting star. +(_What you cannot finish you must leave undone!_) + +'How far is St. Helena from the Beresina ice?' +An ill way--a chill way--the ice begins to crack. +But not so far for gentlemen who never took advice. +(_When you can't go forward you must e'en come back!_) + +'How far is St. Helena from the field of Waterloo?' +A near way--a clear way--the ship will take you soon. +A pleasant place for gentlemen with little left to do, +(_Morning never tries you till the afternoon!_) + +'How far from St. Helena to the Gate of Heaven's Grace?' +That no one knows--that no one knows--and no one ever will. +But fold your hands across your heart and cover up your face, +And after all your trapesings, child, lie still! + + + + +CHIL'S SONG + + +These were my companions going forth by night-- + _(For Chil! Look you, for Chil!)_ +Now come I to whistle them the ending of the fight. + _(Chil! Vanguards of Chil!)_ +Word they gave me overhead of quarry newly slain, +Word I gave them underfoot of buck upon the plain. +Here's an end of every trail--they shall not speak again! + +They that called the hunting-cry--they that followed fast-- + _(For Chil! Look you, for Chil!)_ +They that bade the sambhur wheel, or pinned him as he passed-- + _(Chil! Vanguards of Chil!)_ +They that lagged behind the scent--they that ran before, +They that shunned the level horn--they that overbore, +Here's an end of every trail--they shall not follow more. + +These were my companions. Pity 'twas they died! + (_For Chil! Look you, for Chil!_') +Now come I to comfort them that knew them in their pride. + (_Chil! Vanguards of Chil!_) +Tattered flank and sunken eye, open mouth and red, +Locked and lank and lone they lie, the dead upon their dead. +Here's an end of every trail--and here my hosts are fed! + + + + +THE CAPTIVE + + +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, +Observing him nobly at ease, I alighted and followed him. +Thus we had speech by the way, but not touching his sorrow-- +Rather his red Yesterday and his regal To-morrow, +Wherein he statelily moved to the clink of his chains unregarded, +Nowise abashed but contented to drink of the potion awarded. +Saluting aloofly his Fate, he made swift with his story, +And the words of his mouth were as slaves spreading carpets of glory +Embroidered with names of the Djinns--a miraculous weaving-- +But the cool and perspicuous eye overbore unbelieving. +So I submitted myself to the limits of rapture-- +Bound by this man we had bound, amid captives his capture-- +Till he returned me to earth and the visions departed. +But on him be the Peace and the Blessing; for he was great-hearted! + + + + +THE PUZZLER + + +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 with a straw, +But the straw that they were tickled with--the chaff that they were fed with-- +They convert into a weaver's beam to break their foeman's head with. + +For undemocratic reasons and for motives not of State, +They arrive at their conclusions--largely inarticulate. +Being void of self-expression they confide their views to none; +But sometimes in a smoking-room, one learns why things were done. + +Yes, sometimes in a smoking-room, through clouds of 'Ers' and 'Ums,' +Obliquely and by inference illumination comes, +On some step that they have taken, or some action they approve-- +Embellished with the _argot_ of the Upper Fourth Remove. + +In telegraphic sentences, half nodded to their friends, +They hint a matter's inwardness--and there the matter ends. +And while the Celt is talking from Valencia to Kirkwall, +The English--ah, the English!--don't say anything at all! + + + + +HADRAMAUTI + + +Who knows the heart of the Christian? How does he reason? +What are his measures and balances? Which is his season +For laughter, forbearance or bloodshed, and what devils move him +When he arises to smite us? _I_ do not love him. + +He invites the derision of strangers--he enters all places. +Booted, bareheaded he enters. With shouts and embraces +He asks of us news of the household whom we reckon nameless. +Certainly Allah created him forty-fold shameless. + +So it is not in the Desert. One came to me weeping-- +The Avenger of Blood on his track--I took him in keeping. +Demanding not whom he had slain, I refreshed him, I fed him +As he were even a brother. But Eblis had bred him. + +He was the son of an ape, ill at ease in his clothing, +He talked with his head, hands and feet. I endured him with loathing. +Whatever his spirit conceived his countenance showed it +As a frog shows in a mud-puddle. Yet I abode it! + +I fingered my beard and was dumb, in silence confronting him. +_His_ soul was too shallow for silence, e'en with Death hunting him. +I said: 'Tis his weariness speaks,' but, when he had rested, +He chirped in my face like some sparrow, and, presently, jested! + +Wherefore slew I that stranger? He brought me dishonour. +I saddled my mare, Bijli, I set him upon her. +I gave him rice and goat's flesh. He bared me to laughter. +When he was gone from my tent, swift I followed after, +Taking my sword in my hand. The hot wine had filled him. +Under the stars he mocked me--therefore I killed him! + + + + +CHAPTER HEADINGS + + +THE NAULAHKA + +We meet in an evil land +That is near to the gates of hell. +I wait for thy command +To serve, to speed or withstand. +And thou sayest, I do not well? + +Oh Love, the flowers so red +Are only tongues of flame, +The earth is full of the dead, +The new-killed, restless dead. +There is danger beneath and o'erhead, +And I guard thy gates in fear + Of peril and jeopardy, +Of words thou canst not hear, +Of signs thou canst not see-- +And thou sayest 'tis ill that I came? + +This I saw when the rites were done, +And the lamps were dead and the Gods alone, +And the grey snake coiled on the altar stone-- +Ere I fled from a Fear that I could not see, +And the Gods of the East made mouths at me. + + * * * * * + +Now it is not good for the Christian's health to hustle the Aryan brown, +For the Christian riles, and the Aryan smiles and he weareth the Christian down; +And the end of the fight is a tombstone white with the name of the late deceased, +And the epitaph drear: 'A fool lies here who tried to hustle the East.' + + * * * * * + +Beat off in our last fight were we? +The greater need to seek the sea. +For Fortune changeth as the moon +To caravel and picaroon. +Then Eastward Ho! or Westward Ho! +Whichever wind may meetest blow. +Our quarry sails on either sea, +Fat prey for such bold lads as we. +And every sun-dried buccaneer +Must hand and reef and watch and steer. +And bear great wrath of sea and sky +Before the plate-ships wallow by. +Now, as our tall bows take the foam, +Let no man turn his heart to home, +Save to desire treasure more, +And larger warehouse for his store, +When treasure won from Santos Bay +Shall make our sea-washed village gay. + + * * * * * + +Because I sought it far from men, +In deserts and alone, +I found it burning overhead, +The jewel of a Throne. + +Because I sought--I sought it so +And spent my days to find-- +It blazed one moment ere it left +The blacker night behind. + + * * * * * + +When a lover hies abroad. +Looking for his love, +Azrael smiling sheathes his sword, +Heaven smiles above. +Earth and sea +His servants be, +And to lesser compass round, +That his love be sooner found. + + * * * * * + +There was a strife 'twixt man and maid-- +Oh that was at the birth of time! +But what befell 'twixt man and maid, +Oh that's beyond the grip of rhyme. +'Twas, 'Sweet, I must not bide with you,' +And 'Love, I cannot bide alone'; +For both were young and both were true, +And both were hard as the nether stone. + + * * * * * + +There is pleasure in the wet, wet clay, +When the artist's hand is potting it; +There is pleasure in the wet, wet lay, +When the poet's pad is blotting it; +There is pleasure in the shine of your picture on the line +At the Royal Acade-my; +But the pleasure felt in these is as chalk to Cheddar cheese +When it comes to a well-made Lie: +To a quite unwreckable Lie, +To a most impeccable Lie! +To a water-tight, fire-proof, angle-iron, sunk-hinge, time-lock, steel-face Lie! +Not a private hansom Lie, +But a pair-and-brougham Lie, +Not a little-place-at-Tooting, but a country-house-with-shooting +And a ring-fence-deer-park Lie. + + * * * * * + + We be the Gods of the East-- + Older than all-- + Masters of Mourning and Feast + How shall we fall? + + Will they gape for the husks that ye proffer + Or yearn to your song? + And we--have we nothing to offer + Who ruled them so long-- +In the fume of the incense, the clash of the cymbal, the blare of the conch and the gong? + + Over the strife of the schools + Low the day burns-- + Back with the kine from the pools + Each one returns +To the life that he knows where the altar-flame glows and the _tulsi_ is trimmed in the urns. + + * * * * * + + +THE LIGHT THAT FAILED + + +So we settled it all when the storm was done +As comfy as comfy could be; +And I was to wait in the barn, my dears, +Because I was only three, +And Teddy would run to the rainbow's foot +Because he was five and a man; +And that's how it all began, my dears, +And that's how it all began. + + * * * * * + +'If I have taken the common clay + And wrought it cunningly +In the shape of a God that was digged a clod, + The greater honour to me.' +'If thou hast taken the common clay, + And thy hands be not free +From the taint of the soil, thou hast made thy spoil + The greater shame to thee.' + + * * * * * + +The wolf-cub at even lay hid in the corn, +Where the smoke of the cooking hung grey: +He knew where the doe made a couch for her fawn, +And he looked to his strength for his prey. +But the moon swept the smoke-wreaths away, +And he turned from his meal in the villager's close, +And he bayed to the moon as she rose. + + * * * * * + +The lark will make her hymn to God, +The partridge call her brood, +While I forget the heath I trod, +The fields wherein I stood. + +Tis dule to know not night from morn, +But greater dule to know +I can but hear the hunter's horn +That once I used to blow. + + * * * * * + +There were three friends that buried the fourth, +The mould in his mouth and the dust in his eyes, +And they went south and east and north-- +The strong man fights but the sick man dies. + +There were three friends that spoke of the dead-- +The strong man fights but the sick man dies-- +'And would he were here with us now,' they said, +'The sun in our face and the wind in our eyes.' + + * * * * * + +Yet at the last, ere our spearmen had found him, +Yet at the last, ere a sword-thrust could save, +Yet at the last, with his masters around him, +He spoke of the Faith as a master to slave. +Yet at the last, though the Kafirs had maimed him, +Broken by bondage and wrecked by the reiver, +Yet at the last, tho' the darkness had claimed him, +He called upon Allah, and died a Believer! + + + + +GALLIO'S SONG + +(And Gallio cared for none of these things.--ACTS xviii. 17) + + +All day long to the judgment-seat +The crazed Provincials drew-- +All day long at their ruler's feet +Howled for the blood of the Jew. +Insurrection with one accord +Banded itself and woke, +And Paul was about to open his mouth +When Achaia's Deputy spoke-- + +'Whether the God descend from above +Or the Man ascend upon high, +Whether this maker of tents be Jove +Or a younger deity-- +I will be no judge between your gods +And your godless bickerings. +Lictor, drive them hence with rods-- +I care for none of these things! + +'Were it a question of lawful due +Or Cæsar's rule denied, +Reason would I should bear with you +And order it well to be tried; +But this is a question of words and names. +I know the strife it brings. +I will not pass upon any your claims. +I care for none of these things. + +'One thing only I see most clear, +As I pray you also see. +Claudius Cæsar hath set me here +Rome's Deputy to be. +It is Her peace that ye go to break-- +Not mine, nor any king's. +But, touching your clamour of "Conscience sake," +I care for none of these things. + +'Whether ye rise for the sake of a creed, +Or riot in hope of spoil, +Equally will I punish the deed, +Equally check the broil; +Nowise permitting injustice at all +From whatever doctrine it springs-- +But--whether ye follow Priapus or Paul, +I care for none of these things.' + + + + +THE BEES AND THE FLIES + + +A farmer of the Augustan Age +Perused in Virgil's golden page, +The story of the secret won +From Proteus by Cyrene's son-- +How the dank sea-god showed the swain +Means to restore his hives again. +More briefly, how a slaughtered bull +Breeds honey by the bellyful. + +The egregious rustic put to death +A bull by stopping of its breath, +Disposed the carcass in a shed +With fragrant herbs and branches spread, +And, having thus performed the charm, +Sat down to wait the promised swarm. + +Nor waited long. The God of Day +Impartial, quickening with his ray +Evil and good alike, beheld +The carcass--and the carcass swelled. +Big with new birth the belly heaves +Beneath its screen of scented leaves. +Past any doubt, the bull conceives! + +The farmer bids men bring more hives +To house the profit that arrives; +Prepares on pan, and key and kettle, +Sweet music that shall make 'em settle; +But when to crown the work he goes, +Gods! what a stink salutes his nose! + +Where are the honest toilers? Where +The gravid mistress of their care? +A busy scene, indeed, he sees, +But not a sign or sound of bees. +Worms of the riper grave unhid +By any kindly coffin lid, +Obscene and shameless to the light, +Seethe in insatiate appetite, +Through putrid offal, while above +The hissing blow-fly seeks his love, +Whose offspring, supping where they supt, +Consume corruption twice corrupt. + + + + +ROAD-SONG OF THE _BANDAR-LOG_ + + +Here we go in a flung festoon, +Half-way up to the jealous moon! +Don't you envy our pranceful bands? +Don't you wish you had extra hands? +Wouldn't you like if your tails were--_so_-- +Curved in the shape of a Cupid's bow? + Now you're angry, but--never mind, + _Brother, thy tail hangs down behind!_ + +Here we sit in a branchy row, +Thinking of beautiful things we know; +Dreaming of deeds that we mean to do, +All complete, in a minute or two-- +Something noble and grand and good, +Won by merely wishing we could. + Now we're going to--never mind, + _Brother, thy tail hangs down behind!_ + +All the talk we ever have heard +Uttered by bat or beast or bird-- +Hide or fin or scale or feather-- +Jabber it quickly and all together! +Excellent! Wonderful! Once again! +Now we are talking just like men. + Let's pretend we are ... never mind, + _Brother, thy tail hangs down behind!_ + This is the way of the Monkey-kind! + +_Then join our leaping lines that scumfish through the pines, +That rocket by where, light and high, the wild-grape swings. +By the rubbish in our wake, and the noble noise we make, +Be sure, be sure, we're going to do some splendid things._ + + + + +'OUR FATHERS ALSO' + + +Thrones, Powers, Dominions, Peoples, Kings, +Are changing 'neath our hand; +Our fathers also see these things +But they do not understand. + +By--they are by with mirth and tears, +Wit or the works of Desire-- +Cushioned about on the kindly years +Between the wall and the fire. + +The grapes are pressed, the corn is shocked-- +Standeth no more to glean; +For the Gates of Love and Learning locked +When they went out between. + +All lore our Lady Venus bares, +Signalled it was or told +By the dear lips long given to theirs +And longer to the mould. + +All Profit, all Device, all Truth +Written it was or said +By the mighty men of their mighty youth, +Which is mighty being dead. + +The film that floats before their eyes +The Temple's Veil they call; +And the dust that on the Shewbread lies +Is holy over all. + +Warn them of seas that slip our yoke +Of slow-conspiring stars-- +The ancient Front of Things unbroke +But heavy with new wars? + +By--they are by with mirth and tears, +Wit or the waste of Desire-- +Cushioned about on the kindly years +Between the wall and the fire. + + + + +A BRITISH-ROMAN SONG + +(A.D. 406) + + +My father's father saw it not, + And I, belike, shall never come, +To look on that so-holy spot-- + The very Rome-- + +Crowned by all Time, all Art, all Might, + The equal work of Gods and Man, +City beneath whose oldest height-- + The Race began! + +Soon to send forth again a brood, + Unshakeable, we pray, that clings, +To Rome's thrice-hammered hardihood-- + In arduous things. + +Strong heart with triple armour bound, + Beat strongly, for thy life-blood runs, +Age after Age, the Empire round-- + In us thy Sons. + +Who, distant from the Seven Hills, + Loving and serving much, require +Thee--_thee_ to guard 'gainst home-born ills, + The Imperial Fire! + + + + +A PICT SONG + + +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 Little Folk--we! + Too little to love or to hate. +Leave us alone and you'll see + How we can drag down the State! +We are the worm in the wood! + We are the rot at the root! +We are the germ in the blood! + We are the thorn in the foot! + +Mistletoe killing an oak-- + Rats gnawing cables in two-- +Moths making holes in a cloak-- + How they must love what they do! +Yes--and we Little Folk too, + We are busy as they-- +Working our works out of view-- + Watch, and you'll see it some day! + +No indeed! We are not strong, + But we know Peoples that are. +Yes, and we'll guide them along, + To smash and destroy you in War! +We shall be slaves just the same? + Yes, we have always been slaves, +But you--you will die of the shame, + And then we shall dance on your graves! + +_We are the Little Folk, we, etc._ + + + + +THE STRANGER + + +The Stranger within my gate, + He may be true or kind. +But he does not talk my talk-- + I cannot feel his mind. +I see the face and the eyes and the mouth, + But not the soul behind. + +The men of my own stock + They may do ill or well, +But they tell the lies I am wonted to, + They are used to the lies I tell. +We do not need interpreters + When we go to buy and sell. + +The Stranger within my gates, + He may be evil or good, +But I cannot tell what powers control-- + What reasons sway his mood; +Nor when the Gods of his far-off land + May repossess his blood. + +The men of my own stock, + Bitter bad they may be, +But, at least, they hear the things I hear, + And see the things I see; +And whatever I think of them and their likes + They think of the likes of me. + +This was my father's belief + And this is also mine: +Let the corn be all one sheaf-- + And the grapes be all one vine, +Ere our children's teeth are set on edge + By bitter bread and wine. + + + + +'RIMINI' + +(Marching Song of a Roman Legion of the Later Empire) + + +When I left home for Lalage's sake +By the Legions' road to Rimini, +She vowed her heart was mine to take +With me and my shield to Rimini-- +(Till the Eagles flew from Rimini!) +And I've tramped Britain, and I've tramped Gaul, +And the Pontic shore where the snow-flakes fall +As white as the neck of Lalage-- +(As cold as the heart of Lalage!) +And I've lost Britain, and I've lost Gaul, +And I've lost Rome, and worst of all, +I've lost Lalage! + +When you go by the Via Aurelia, +As thousands have travelled before, +Remember the Luck of the Soldier +Who never saw Rome any more! +Oh dear was the sweetheart that kissed him +And dear was the mother that bore, +But his shield was picked up in the heather, +And he never saw Rome any more! + +And _he_ left Rome, etc. + +When you go by the Via Aurelia +That runs from the City to Gaul, +Remember the Luck of the Soldier +Who rose to be master of all! +He carried the sword and the buckler, +He mounted his guard on the Wall, +Till the Legions elected him Cæsar, +And he rose to be master of all! + +And _he_ left Rome, etc. + +It's twenty-five marches to Narbo, +It's forty-five more up the Rhone, +And the end may be death in the heather +Or life on an Emperor's throne. + +But whether the Eagles obey us, +Or we go to the Ravens--alone, +I'd sooner be Lalage's lover +Than sit on an Emperor's throne! + +We've _all_ left Rome for Lalage's sake, etc. + + + + +'POOR HONEST MEN' + +(A.D. 1800) + + +Your jar of Virginny +Will cost you a guinea +Which you reckon too much by five shillings or ten; +But light your churchwarden +And judge it according, +When I've told you the troubles of poor honest men! + +From the Capes of the Delaware, +As you are well aware, +We sail with tobacco for England--but then, +Our own British cruisers, +They watch us come through, sirs, +And they press half a score of us poor honest men! + +Or if by quick sailing +(Thick weather prevailing) +We leave them behind (as we do now and then) +We are sure of a gun from +Each frigate we run from, +Which is often destruction to poor honest men! + +Broadsides the Atlantic +We tumble short-handed, +With shot-holes to plug and new canvas to bend, +And off the Azores, +Dutch, Dons and Monsieurs +Are waiting to terrify poor honest men. + +Napoleon's embargo +Is laid on all cargo +Which comfort or aid to King George may intend; +And since roll, twist and leaf, +Of all comforts is chief, +They try for to steal it from poor honest men! + +With no heart for fight, +We take refuge in flight +But fire as we run, our retreat to defend, +Until our stern-chasers +Cut up her fore-braces, +And she flies up the wind from us poor honest men! + +Twix' the Forties and Fifties, +South-eastward the drift is, +And so, when we think we are making Land's End, +Alas! it is Ushant +With half the King's Navy, +Blockading French ports against poor honest men! + +But they may not quit station +(Which is our salvation), +So swiftly we stand to the Nor'ard again; +And finding the tail of +A homeward-bound convoy, +We slip past the Scillies like poor honest men. + +Twix' the Lizard and Dover, +We hand our stuff over, +Though I may not inform how we do it, nor when. +But a light on each quarter +Low down on the water +Is well understanded by poor honest men! + +Even then we have dangers, +From meddlesome strangers, +Who spy on our business and are not content +To take a smooth answer, +Except with a handspike ... +And they say they are murdered by poor honest men! + +To be drowned or be shot +Is our natural lot, +Why should we, moreover, be hanged in the end-- +After all our great pains +For to dangle in chains +As though we were smugglers, not poor honest men? + + + + +'WHEN THE GREAT ARK' + + +When the Great Ark, in Vigo Bay, + Rode stately through the half-manned fleet, +From every ship about her way + She heard the mariners entreat-- +'Before we take the seas again, +Let down your boats and send us men! + +'We have no lack of victual here + With work--God knows!--enough for all, +To hand and reef and watch and steer, + Because our present strength is small. +While your three decks are crowded so +Your crews can scarcely stand or go. + +'In war, your numbers do but raise + Confusion and divided will; +In storm, the mindless deep obeys + Not multitudes but single skill; +In calm, your numbers, closely pressed. +Do breed a mutiny or pest. + +'We, even on unchallenged seas, + Dare not adventure where we would, +But forfeit brave advantages + For lack of men to make 'em good; +Whereby, to England's double cost. +Honour and profit both are lost!' + + + + +PROPHETS AT HOME + + +Prophets have honour all over the Earth, + Except in the village where they were born. +Where such as knew them boys from birth, + Nature-ally hold 'em in scorn. + +When Prophets are naughty and young and vain, + They make a won'erful grievance of it; +(You can see by their writings how they complain), + But O, 'tis won'erful good for the Prophet! + +There's nothing Nineveh Town can give + (Nor being swallowed by whales between), +Makes up for the place where a man's folk live, + Which don't care nothing what he has been. +He might ha' been that, or he might ha' been this, + But they love and they hate him for what he is. + + + + +JUBAL AND TUBAL CAIN + + +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 the love that its waves divide-- +But Tubal hollowed a fallen tree + And passed to the further side. + Black--black as the hurricane-wrack, + Salt as the under-main-- + Bitter and cold is the hate they hold-- + Jubal and Tubal Cain! + +Jubal sang of the golden years + When wars and wounds shall cease-- +But Tubal fashioned the hand-flung spears + And showèd his neighbours peace. + New--new as the Nine point Two, + Older than Lamech's slain-- + Roaring and loud is the feud avowed + Twix' Jubal and Tubal Cain! + +Jubal sang of the cliffs that bar + And the peaks that none may crown-- +But Tubal clambered by jut and scar + And there he builded a town. + High--high as the snowsheds lie, + Low as the culverts drain-- + Wherever they be they can never agree-- + Jubal and Tubal Cain! + + + + +THE VOORTREKKER + + +The gull shall whistle in his wake, the blind wave break in fire. +He shall fulfil God's utmost will, unknowing his desire. +And he shall see old planets change and alien stars arise, +And give the gale his seaworn sail in shadow of new skies. +Strong lust of gear shall drive him forth and hunger arm his hand, +To win his food from the desert rude, his pittance from the sand. +His neighbours' smoke shall vex his eyes, their voices break his rest, +He shall go forth till south is north sullen and dispossessed. +He shall desire loneliness and his desire shall bring, +Hard on his heels, a thousand wheels, a People and a King. +He shall come back on his own track, and by his scarce-cooled camp +There shall he meet the roaring street, the derrick and the stamp: +There he shall blaze a nation's ways with hatchet and with brand, +Till on his last-won wilderness an Empire's outposts stand. + + + + +A SCHOOL SONG + + +_'Let us now praise famous men'-- + Men of little showing-- +For their work continueth, +And their work continueth, +Broad and deep continueth, + Greater than their knowing!_ + +Western wind and open surge + Took us from our mothers. +Flung us on a naked shore +(Twelve bleak houses by the shore! +Seven summers by the shore!) + 'Mid two hundred brothers. + +There we met with famous men + Set in office o'er us; +And they beat on us with rods-- +Faithfully with many rods-- +Daily beat on us with rods, + For the love they bore us! + +Out of Egypt unto Troy-- + Over Himalaya-- +Far and sure our bands have gone-- +Hy-Brasil or Babylon, +Islands of the Southern Run, + And Cities of Cathaia! + +And we all praise famous men-- + Ancients of the College; +For they taught us common sense-- +Tried to teach us common sense-- +Truth and God's Own Common Sense, + Which is more than knowledge! + +Each degree of Latitude + Strung about Creation +Seeth one or more of us +(Of one muster each of us), +Diligent in that he does, + Keen in his vocation. + +This we learned from famous men, + Knowing not its uses, +When they showed, in daily work, +Man must finish off his work-- +Right or wrong, his daily work-- + And without excuses. + +Servants of the Staff and chain, + Mine and fuse and grapnel-- +Some before the face of Kings, +Stand before the face of Kings; +Bearing gifts to divers Kings-- + Gifts of case and shrapnel. + +This we learned from famous men + Teaching in our borders, +Who declarèd it was best, +Safest, easiest, and best-- +Expeditious, wise, and best-- + To obey your orders. + +Some beneath the further stars + Bear the greater burden: +Set to serve the lands they rule, +(Save he serve no man may rule), +Serve and love the lands they rule; + Seeking praise nor guerdon. + +This we learned from famous men, + Knowing not we learned it. +Only, as the years went by-- +Lonely, as the years went by-- +Far from help as years went by, + Plainer we discerned it. + +Wherefore praise we famous men + From whose bays we borrow-- +They that put aside To-day-- +All the joys of their To-day-- +And with toil of their To-day + Bought for us To-morrow! + +_Bless and praise we famous men-- + Men of little showing-- +For their work continueth, +And their work continueth, +Broad and deep continueth, + Great beyond their knowing!_ + + + + +THE LAW OF THE JUNGLE + + +_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 strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack._ + +Wash daily from nose-tip to tail-tip; drink deeply, but never too deep; +And remember the night is for hunting, and forget not the day is for sleep. + +The Jackal may follow the Tiger, but, Cub, when thy whiskers are grown, +Remember the Wolf is a hunter--go forth and get food of thine own. + +Keep peace with the Lords of the Jungle--the Tiger, the Panther, the Bear; +And trouble not Hathi the Silent, and mock not the Boar in his lair. + +When Pack meets with Pack in the Jungle, and neither will go from the trail, +Lie down till the leaders have spoken--it may be fair words shall prevail. + +When ye fight with a Wolf of the Pack, ye must fight him alone and afar, +Lest others take part in the quarrel, and the Pack be diminished by war. + +The Lair of the Wolf is his refuge, and where he has made him his home, +Not even the Head Wolf may enter, not even the Council may come. + +The Lair of the Wolf is his refuge, but where he has digged it too plain, +The Council shall send him a message, and so he shall change it again. + +If ye kill before midnight, be silent, and wake not the woods with your bay, +Lest ye frighten the deer from the crops, and the brothers go empty away. + +Ye may kill for yourselves, and your mates, and your cubs as they need, and ye can; +But kill not for pleasure of killing, and _seven times never kill Man!_ + +If ye plunder his Kill from a weaker, devour not all in thy pride; +Pack-Right is the right of the meanest; so leave him the head and the hide. + +The Kill of the Pack is the meat of the Pack. Ye must eat where it lies; +And no one may carry away of that meat to his lair, or he dies. + +The Kill of the Wolf is the meat of the Wolf. He may do what he will, +But, till he has given permission, the Pack may not eat of that Kill. + +Cub-Right is the right of the Yearling. From all of his Pack he may claim +Full-gorge when the killer has eaten; and none may refuse him the same. + +Lair-Right is the right of the Mother. From all of her year she may claim +One haunch of each kill for her litter; and none may deny her the same. + +Cave-Right is the right of the Father--to hunt by himself for his own: +He is freed of all calls to the Pack; he is judged by the Council alone. + +Because of his age and his cunning, because of his gripe and his paw, +In all that the Law leaveth open, the word of the Head Wolf is Law. + +_Now these are the Laws of the Jungle, and many and mighty are they; +But the head and the hoof of the Law and the haunch and the hump is--Obey!_ + + + + +'A SERVANT WHEN HE REIGNETH' + +(For three things the earth is disquieted, and for four +which it cannot bear: for a servant when he reigneth; and +a fool when he is filled with meat; for an odious woman +when she is married; and an handmaid that is heir to her +mistress.--PROV. XXX. 21, 22, 23.) + + +Three things make earth unquiet, +And four she cannot brook; +The godly Agur counted them +And put them in a book-- +Those Four Tremendous Curses +With which mankind is cursed: +But a Servant when He Reigneth +Old Agur counted first. + +An Handmaid that is Mistress +We need not call upon, +A Fool when he is full of Meat +Will fall asleep anon. +An Odious Woman Married +May bear a babe and mend. +But a Servant when He Reigneth +Is Confusion to the end. + +His feet are swift to tumult, +His hands are slow to toil, +His ears are deaf to reason, +His lips are loud in broil. +He knows no use for power +Except to show his might, +He gives no heed to judgment +Unless it prove him right. + +Because he served a master +Before his Kingship came, +And hid in all disaster +Behind his master's name, +So, when his Folly opens +The unnecessary hells, +A Servant when He Reigneth +Throws the blame on some one else. + +His vows are lightly spoken, +His faith is hard to bind. +His trust is easy broken, +He fears his fellow-kind. +The nearest mob will move him +To break the pledge he gave-- +Oh a Servant when He Reigneth +Is more than ever slave! + + + + +'OUR FATHERS OF OLD' + + +Excellent herbs had our fathers of old-- + Excellent herbs to ease their pain-- +Alexanders and Marigold, + Eyebright, Orris, and Elecampane. +Basil, Rocket, Valerian, Rue, + (Almost singing themselves they run) +Vervain, Dittany, Call-me-to-you-- + Cowslip, Melilot, Rose of the Sun. + Anything green that grew out of the mould + Was an excellent herb to our fathers of old. + +Wonderful tales had our fathers of old-- + Wonderful tales of the herbs and the stars-- +The Sun was Lord of the Marigold, + Basil and Rocket belonged to Mars. +Pat as a sum in division it goes-- + (Every plant had a star bespoke)-- +Who but Venus should govern the Rose? + Who but Jupiter own the Oak? + Simply and gravely the facts are told + In the wonderful books of our fathers of old. + +Wonderful little, when all is said, + Wonderful little our fathers knew. +Half their remedies cured you dead-- + Most of their teaching was quite untrue-- +'Look at the stars when a patient is ill, + (Dirt has nothing to do with disease,) +Bleed and blister as much as you will, + Blister and bleed him as oft as you please.' + Whence enormous and manifold + Errors were made by our fathers of old. + +Yet when the sickness was sore in the land, + And neither planets nor herbs assuaged, +They took their lives in their lancet-hand + And, oh, what a wonderful war they waged! +Yes, when the crosses were chalked on the door-- + (Yes, when the terrible dead-cart rolled,) +Excellent courage our fathers bore-- + Excellent heart had our fathers of old. + None too learned, but nobly bold + Into the fight went our fathers of old. + +If it be certain, as Galen says, + And sage Hippocrates holds as much-- +'That those afflicted by doubts and dismays + Are mightily helped by a dead man's touch', +Then, be good to us, stars above! + Then, be good to us, herbs below! +We are afflicted by what we can prove, + We are distracted by what we know-- + So--ah, so! + Down from your heaven or up from your mould, + Send us the hearts of our fathers of old! + + + + +THE HERITAGE + + +Our Fathers in a wondrous age, + Ere yet the earth was small, +Ensured to us an heritage, + And doubted not at all +That we, the children of their heart, + Which then did beat so high, +In later time should play like part + For our posterity. + +A thousand years they steadfast built, + To 'vantage us and ours, +The Walls that were a world's despair, + The sea-constraining Towers: +Yet in their midmost pride they knew, + And unto Kings made known, +Not all from these their strength they drew, + Their faith from brass or stone. + +Youth's passion, manhood's fierce intent. + With age's judgment wise, +They spent, and counted not they spent. + At daily sacrifice. +Not lambs alone nor purchased doves + Or tithe of trader's gold-- +Their lives most dear, their dearer loves, + They offered up of old. + +Refraining e'en from lawful things. + They bowed the neck to bear +The unadornèd yoke that brings + Stark toil and sternest care. +Wherefore through them is Freedom sure; + Wherefore through them we stand +From all but sloth and pride secure, + In a delightsome land. + +Then, fretful, murmur not they gave + So great a charge to keep. +Nor dream that awestruck Time shall save + Their labour while we sleep. +Dear-bought and clear, a thousand year, + Our fathers' title runs. +Make we likewise their sacrifice, + Defrauding not our sons. + + + + +CHAPTER HEADINGS + + +'BEAST AND MAN IN INDIA' + + +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 meat of sacrifice, +The ransom of man's guilt, +For they give my life to the altar-knife +Wherever shrine is built. + + _The Goat._ + + +Between the waving tufts of jungle-grass, +Up from the river as the twilight falls, +Across the dust-beclouded plain they pass +On to the village walls. + +Great is the sword and mighty is the pen, +But greater far the labouring ploughman's blade, +For on its oxen and its husbandmen +An Empire's strength is laid. + + _The Oxen._ + + +The torn boughs trailing o'er the tusks aslant, +The saplings reeling in the path he trod, +Declare his might--our lord the Elephant, +Chief of the ways of God. + +The black bulk heaving where the oxen pant, +The bowed head toiling where the guns careen, +Declare our might--our slave the Elephant +And servant of the Queen. + + _The Elephant._ + + +Dark children of the mere and marsh, +Wallow and waste and lea, +Outcaste they wait at the village gate +With folk of low degree. + +Their pasture is in no man's land. +Their food the cattle's scorn, +Their rest is mire and their desire +The thicket and the thorn. + +But woe to those who break their sleep, +And woe to those who dare +To rouse the herd-bull from his keep, +The wild boar from his lair! + + _Pigs and Buffaloes._ + +The beasts are very wise, +Their mouths are clean of lies, +They talk one to the other, +Bullock to bullock's brother +Resting after their labours, +Each in stall with his neighbours. +But man with goad and whip, +Breaks up their fellowship, +Shouts in their silky ears +Filling their souls with fears. +When he has ploughed the land, +He says: 'They understand.' +But the beasts in stall together, +Freed from the yoke and tether, +Say as the torn flanks smoke: +'Nay, 'twas the whip that spoke.' + + + + +LIFE'S HANDICAP + + +The doors were wide, the story saith, +Out of the night came the patient wraith. +He might not speak, and he could not stir +A hair of the Baron's minniver. +Speechless and strengthless, a shadow thin, +He roved the castle to find his kin. +And oh! 'twas a piteous sight to see +The dumb ghost follow his enemy! + + _The Return of Imray._ + + +Before my spring I garnered autumn's gain, +Out of her time my field was white with grain, +The year gave up her secrets, to my woe. +Forced and deflowered each sick season lay +In mystery of increase and decay; +I saw the sunset ere men see the day, +Who am too wise in all I should not know. + + _Without Benefit of Clergy._ + + + + +KIM + + +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 +Which planet mends thy threadbare fate, or mars. + + + + +MANY INVENTIONS + + +And if ye doubt the tale I tell, +Steer through the South Pacific swell; +Go where the branching coral hives +Unending strife of endless lives, +Where, leagued about the 'wildered boat, +The rainbow jellies fill and float; +And, lilting where the laver lingers, +The starfish trips on all her fingers; +Where, 'neath his myriad spines ashock, +The sea-egg ripples down the rock; +An orange wonder daily guessed, +From darkness where the cuttles rest, +Moored o'er the darker deeps that hide +The blind white sea-snake and his bride +Who, drowsing, nose the long-lost ships +Let down through darkness to their lips. + + _A Matter of Fact._ + +There's a convict more in the Central Jail, +Behind the old mud wall; +There's a lifter less on the Border trail, +And the Queen's peace over all, +Dear boys, +The Queen's peace over all! + +For we must bear our leader's blame, +On us the shame will fall, +If we lift our hand from a fettered land +And the Queen's peace over all, +Dear boys, +The Queen's peace over all! + + _The Lost Legion._ + + +'Less you want your toes trod off 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 Lord the Elephant._ + + +All the world over, nursing their scars, +Sit the old fighting-men broke in the wars-- +Sit the old fighting men, surly and grim +Mocking the lilt of the conquerors' hymn. + +Dust of the battle o'erwhelmed them and hid. +Fame never found them for aught that they did. +Wounded and spent to the lazar they drew, +Lining the road where the Legions roll through. + +Sons of the Laurel who press to your meed, +(Worthy God's pity most--ye who succeed!) +Ere you go triumphing, crowned, to the stars, +Pity poor fighting men, broke in the wars! + + _Collected_. + + + + +SONG OF THE FIFTH RIVER + + +When first by Eden Tree, +The Four Great Rivers ran, +To each was appointed a Man +Her Prince and Ruler to be. + +But after this was ordained, +(The ancient legends tell), +There came dark Israel, +For whom no River remained. + +Then He Whom the Rivers obey +Said to him: 'Fling on the ground +A handful of yellow clay, +And a Fifth Great River shall run, +Mightier than these Four, +In secret the Earth around; +And Her secret evermore, +Shall be shown to thee and thy Race.' +So it was said and done. +And deep in the veins of Earth, +And, fed by a thousand springs +That comfort the market-place, +Or sap the power of Kings, +The Fifth Great River had birth, +Even as it was foretold-- +The Secret River of Gold! + +And Israel laid down +His sceptre and his crown, +To brood on that River's bank, +Where the waters flashed and sank, +And burrowed in earth and fell, +And bided a season below, +For reason that none might know, +Save only Israel. + +He is Lord of the Last-- +The Fifth, most wonderful, Flood. +He hears Her thunder past +And Her Song is in his blood. +He can foresay: 'She will fall,' +For he knows which fountain dries. +Behind which desert-belt +A thousand leagues to the South. + +He can foresay: 'She will rise.' +He knows what far snows melt; +Along what mountain-wall +A thousand leagues to the North. +He snuffs the coming drouth +As he snuffs the coming rain, +He knows what each will bring forths +And turns it to his gain. + +A Ruler without a Throne, +A Prince without a Sword, +Israel follows his quest. +In every land a guest, +Of many lands a lord, +In no land King is he. +But the Fifth Great River keeps +The secret of Her deeps +For Israel alone, +As it was ordered to be. + + + + +THE CHILDREN'S SONG + + +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 to age, +An undefilèd heritage. + +Teach us to bear the yoke in youth, +With steadfastness and careful truth; +That, in our time, Thy Grace may give +The Truth whereby the Nations live. + +Teach us to rule ourselves alway, +Controlled and cleanly night and day; +That we may bring, if need arise. +No maimed or worthless sacrifice. + +Teach us to look in all our ends, +On Thee for judge, and not our friends; +That we, with Thee, may walk uncowed +By fear or favour of the crowd. + +Teach us the Strength that cannot seek, +By deed or thought, to hurt the weak; +That, under Thee, we may possess +Man's strength to comfort man's distress. + +Teach us Delight in simple things, +And Mirth that has no bitter springs; +Forgiveness free of evil done, +And Love to all men 'neath the sun! + +Land of our Birth, our faith, our pride, +For whose dear sake our fathers died; +O Motherland, we pledge to thee, +Head, heart, and hand through the years to be! + + + + +PARADE-SONG OF THE CAMP-ANIMALS + + +ELEPHANTS OF THE GUN-TEAMS + +We lent to Alexander the strength of Hercules, +The wisdom of our foreheads, the cunning of our knees. +We bowed our necks to service; they ne'er were loosed again,-- +Make way there, way for the ten-foot teams + Of the Forty-Pounder train! + + +GUN-BULLOCKS + +Those heroes in their harnesses avoid a cannon-ball, +And what they know of powder upsets them one and all; +Then _we_ come into action and tug the guns again,-- +Make way there, way for the twenty yoke + Of the Forty-Pounder train! + + +CAVALRY HORSES + +By the brand on my withers, the finest of tunes +Is played by the Lancers, Hussars, and Dragoons, +And it's sweeter than 'Stables' or 'Water' to me. +The Cavalry Canter of 'Bonnie Dundee'! + +Then feed us and break us and handle and groom, +And give us good riders and plenty of room, +And launch us in column of squadron and see +The Way of the War-horse to 'Bonnie Dundee'! + + +SCREW-GUN MULES + +As me and my companions were scrambling up a hill, +The path was lost in rolling stones, but we went forward still; +For we can wriggle and climb, my lads, and turn up everywhere, +And it's our delight on a mountain height, with a leg or two to spare! + +Good luck to every sergeant, then, that lets us pick our road! +Bad luck to all the driver-men that cannot pack a load! +For we can wriggle and climb, my lads, and turn up everywhere, +And it's our delight on a mountain height, with a leg or two to spare! + + +COMMISSARIAT CAMELS + +We haven't a camelty tune of our own +To help us trollop along, +But every neck is a hair-trombone +(_Rtt-ta-ta-ta_! is a hair-trombone!) +And this is our marching-song: +_Can't! Don't! Shan't! Won't!_ +Pass it along the line! +Somebody's pack has slid from his back, +'Wish it were only mine! +Somebody's load has tipped off in the road-- +Cheer for a halt and a row! +_Urrr! Yarrh! Grr! Arrh!_ +Somebody's catching it now! + + +ALL THE BEASTS TOGETHER + +Children of the Camp are we, +Serving each in his degree; +Children of the yoke and goad, +Pack and harness, pad and load. +See our line across the plain. +Like a heel-rope bent again, +Beaching, writhing, rolling far. +Sweeping all away to war! +While the men that walk beside, +Dusty, silent, heavy-eyed, +Cannot tell why we or they +March and suffer day by day. + _Children of the Camp are we, + Serving each in hiss degree; + Children of the yoke and goad, + Pack and harness, pad and load._ + + + + +IF-- + + +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 hated don't give way to hating, + And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise: + +If you can dream--and not make dreams your master; + If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim; +If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster + And treat those two impostors just the same; +If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken + Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, +Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, + And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools: + +If you can make one heap of all your winnings + And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, +And lose, and start again at your beginnings + And never breathe a word about your loss; +If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew + To serve your turn long after they are gone. +And so hold on when there is nothing in you + Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!' + +If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, + Or walk with Kings--nor lose the common touch; +If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, + If all men count with you, but none too much; +If you can fill the unforgiving minute + With sixty seconds' worth of distance run, +Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, + And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son! + + + + +THE PRODIGAL SON + +(Western Version) + + +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 Yards afresh. + +I never was very refined, you see, +(And it weighs on my brother's mind, you see) +But there's no reproach among swine, d'you see, +For being a bit of a swine. +So I'm off with wallet and staff to eat +The bread that is three parts chaff to wheat, +But glory be!--there's a laugh to it, +Which isn't the case when we dine. + +My father glooms and advises me, +My brother sulks and despises me, +And Mother catechises me +Till I want to go out and swear. +And, in spite of the butler's gravity, +I know that the servants have it I +Am a monster of moral depravity, +And I'm damned if I think it's fair! + +I wasted my substance, I know I did, +On riotous living, so I did, +But there's nothing on record to show I did +Worse than my betters have done. +They talk of the money I spent out there-- +They hint at the pace that I went out there-- +But they all forget I was sent out there +Alone as a rich man's son. + +So I was a mark for plunder at once, +And lost my cash (can you wonder?) at once, +But I didn't give up and knock under at once, +I worked in the Yards, for a spell. +Where I spent my nights and my days with hogs, +And shared their milk and maize with hogs, +Till, I guess, I have learned what pays with hogs +And--I have that knowledge to sell! + +So back I go to my job again, +Not so easy to rob again, +Or quite so ready to sob again +On any neck that's around. +I'm leaving, Pater. Good-bye to you! +God bless you, Mater! I'll write to you.... +I wouldn't be impolite to you, +But, Brother, you _are_ a hound! + + + + +THE NECESSITARIAN + + +I know not in Whose hands are laid + To empty upon earth +From unsuspected ambuscade + The very Urns of Mirth; + +Who bids the Heavenly Lark arise + And cheer our solemn round-- +The Jest beheld with streaming eyes + And grovellings on the ground; + +Who joins the flats of Time and Chance + Behind the prey preferred, +And thrones on Shrieking Circumstance + The Sacredly Absurd, + +Till Laughter, voiceless through excess, + Waves mute appeal and sore, +Above the midriff's deep distress, + For breath to laugh once more. + +No creed hath dared to hail Him Lord, + No raptured choirs proclaim, +And Nature's strenuous Overword + Hath nowhere breathed His Name. + +Yet, it must be, on wayside jape, + The selfsame Power bestows +The selfsame power as went to shape + His Planet or His Rose. + + + + +THE JESTER + + +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 the Gardens of Paradise, +And the second place is his +Who saves his brother's soul +By excellent advice. +For there the Glory lies! + +There are three degrees of bliss +And three abodes of the Blest, +And the lowest place is his +Who has saved a soul by a jest +And a brother's soul in sport ... +But there do the Angels resort! + + + + +A SONG OF TRAVEL + + +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 Virgins' care; +And the oldest altar shows + But an older darkness there. +Age-encamped Oblivion +Tenteth every light that shone! + +Yet shall we, for Suns that die, + Wall our wanderings from desire? +Or, because the Moon is high. + Scorn to use a nearer fire? +Lest some envious Pharaoh stir, +Make our lives our sepulchre? + +Nay! Though Time with petty Fate + Prison us and Emperors, +By our Arts do we create + That which Time himself devours-- +Such machines as well may run +'Gainst the horses of the Sun. + +When we would a new abode, + Space, our tyrant King no more, +Lays the long lance of the road + At our feet and flees before, +Breathless, ere we overwhelm, + To submit a further realm! + + + + +THE TWO-SIDED MAN + + +Much I owe to the Land that grew-- +More to the Life that fed-- +But most to Allah Who gave me two +Separate sides to my head. + +Much I reflect on the Good and the True +In the Faiths beneath the sun, +But most upon Allah Who gave me two +Sides to my head, not one. + +Wesley's following, Calvin's flock, +White or yellow or bronze, +Shaman, Ju-ju or Angekok, +Minister, Mukamuk, Bonze-- + +Here is a health, my brothers, to you, +However your prayers are said, +And praised be Allah Who gave me two +Separate sides to my head! + +_I_ would go without shirt or shoe, +Friend, tobacco or bread, +Sooner than lose for a minute the two +Separate sides of my head! + + + + +'LUKANNON' + +(Song of the breeding Seal. Aleutian Islands) + + +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 drowned the breakers' song-- +The Beaches of Lukannon--two million voices strong! + +_The song of pleasant stations beside the salt lagoons, +The song of blowing squadrons that shuffled down the dunes, +The song of midnight dances that churned the sea to flame-- +The Beaches of Lukannon--before the sealers came!_ + +I met my mates in the morning (I'll never meet them more!); +They came and went in legions that darkened all the shore. +And through the foam-flecked offing as far as voice could reach +We hailed the landing-parties and we sang them up the beach. + +_The Beaches of Lukannon--the winter-wheat so tall-- +The dripping, crinkled lichens, and the sea-fog drenching all! +The platforms of our playground, all shining smooth and worn! +The Beaches of Lukannon--the home where we were born_! + +I meet my mates in the morning, a broken, scattered band. +Men shoot us in the water and club us on the land; +Men drive us to the Salt House like silly sheep and tame, +And still we sing Lukannon--before the sealers came. + +_Wheel down, wheel down to southward! Oh, Gooverooska go! +And tell the Deep-Sea Viceroys the story of our woe; +Ere, empty as the shark's egg the tempest flings ashore, +The Beaches of Lukannon shall know their sons no more!_ + + + + +AN ASTROLOGER'S SONG + + +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 one. +All matter, all spirit, + All fashion, all frame, +Receive and inherit + Their strength from the same. + +Oh, man that deniest + All power save thine own, +Their power in the highest + Is mightily shown. +Not less in the lowest + That power is made clear +(Oh, man, if thou knowest, + What treasure is here!) + +Earth quakes in her throes + And we wonder for why. +But the blind planet knows + When her ruler is nigh; +And, attuned since Creation + To perfect accord, +She thrills in her station + And yearns to her Lord. + +The waters have risen, + The springs are unbound-- +The floods break their prison, + And ravin around. +No rampart withstands 'em, + Their fury will last, +Till the Sign that commands 'em + Sinks low or swings past. + +Through abysses unproven, + O'er gulfs beyond thought, +Our portion is woven, + Our burden is brought. +Yet They that prepare it, + Whose Nature we share, +Make us who must bear it + Well able to bear. + +Though terrors o'ertake us + We'll not be afraid. +No Power can unmake us + Save that which has made. +Nor yet beyond reason + Or hope shall we fall-- +All things have their season, + And Mercy crowns all! + +Then, doubt not, ye fearful-- + The Eternal is King-- +Up, heart, and be cheerful, + And lustily sing:-- +_What chariots, what horses, + Against us shall bide +While the Stars in their courses + Do fight on our side?_ + + + + +'THE POWER OF THE DOG' + + +There is sorrow enough in the natural way +From men and women to fill our day; +But when we are certain of sorrow in store, +Why do we always arrange for more? +_Brothers and Sisters, I bid you beware +Of giving your heart to a dog to tear._ + +Buy a pup and your money will buy +Love unflinching that cannot lie-- +Perfect passion and worship fed +By a kick in the ribs or a pat on the head. +_Nevertheless it is hardly fair +To risk your heart for a dog to tear._ + +When the fourteen years which Nature permits +Are closing in asthma, or tumour, or fits, +And the vet's unspoken prescription runs +To lethal chambers or loaded guns, +_Then you will find--it's your own affair, +But ... you've given your heart to a dog to tear._ + +When the body that lived at your single will, +When the whimper of welcome is stilled (how still!), +When the spirit that answered your every mood +Is gone--wherever it goes--for good, +_You will discover how much you care, +And will give your heart to a dog to tear._ + +We've sorrow enough in the natural way, +When it comes to burying Christian clay. +Our loves are not given, but only lent, +At compound interest of cent per cent. +Though it is not always the case, I believe, +That the longer we've kept 'em, the more do we grieve: +For, when debts are payable, right or wrong, +A short-time loan is as bad as a long-- +_So why in--Heaven (before we are there) +Should we give our hearts to a dog to tear?_ + + + + +THE RABBI'S SONG + + +If Thought can reach to Heaven, + On Heaven let it dwell, +For fear thy 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 ghost remain, +In wall, or beam, or rafter, + Of any hate or pain. +Cleanse and call home thy spirit, + Deny her leave to cast, +On aught thy heirs inherit, + The shadow of her past. +For think, in all thy sadness, + What road our griefs may take; +Whose brain reflect our madness, + Or whom our terrors shake. +For think, lest any languish + By cause of thy distress-- +The arrows of our anguish + Fly farther than we guess. + +Our lives, our tears, as water, + Are spilled upon the ground; +God giveth no man quarter, + Yet God a means hath found, +Though faith and hope have vanished, + And even love grows dim-- +A means whereby His banished + Be not expelled from Him. + + + + +THE BEE BOY'S SONG + + +_Bees! Bees! Hark to your bees! +'Hide from your neighbours as much as you please, +But all that has happened, to_ us _you must tell, +Or else we will give you no honey to sell!'_ + +A maiden in her glory, + Upon her wedding-day, +Must tell her Bees the story, + Or else they'll fly away. + Fly away--die away-- + Dwindle down and leave you! + But if you don't deceive your Bees, + Your Bees will not deceive you. + +Marriage, birth or buryin', + News across the seas, +All you're sad or merry in, + You must tell the Bees. + Tell 'em coming in an' out, + Where the Fanners fan, + 'Cause the Bees are just about + As curious as a man! + +Don't you wait where trees are, + When the lightnings play, +Nor don't you hate where Bees are, + Or else they'll pine away. + Pine away--dwine away-- + Anything to leave you! + But if you never grieve your Bees, + Your Bees'll never grieve you. + + + + +THE RETURN OF THE CHILDREN + + +Neither the harps nor the crowns amused, nor the cherubs' dove-winged races-- +Holding hands forlornly the Children wandered beneath the Dome, +Plucking the splendid robes of the passers-by, and with pitiful faces +Begging what Princes and Powers refused:--'Ah, please will you let us go home?' + +Over the jewelled floor, nigh weeping, ran to them Mary the Mother, +Kneeled and caressed and made promise with kisses, and drew them along to the gateway-- +Yea, the all-iron unbribeable Door which Peter must guard and none other. +Straightway She took the Keys from his keeping, and opened and freed them straightway. + +Then, to Her Son, Who had seen and smiled, She said: 'On the night that I bore Thee, +What didst Thou care for a love beyond mine or a heaven that was not my arm? +Didst Thou push from the nipple, O Child, to hear the angels adore Thee? +When we two lay in the breath of the kine?' And He said:--'Thou hast done no harm.' + +So through the Void the Children ran homeward merrily hand in hand, +Looking neither to left nor right where the breathless Heavens stood still. +And the Guards of the Void resheathed their swords, for they heard the Command: +'Shall I that have suffered the children to come to Me hold them against their will?' + + + + +MERROW DOWN + + +I + +There runs a road by Merrow Down-- + A grassy track to-day it is-- +An hour out of Guildford town, + Above the river Wey it is. + +Here, when they heard the horse-bells ring, + The ancient Britons dressed and rode +To watch the dark Phoenicians bring + Their goods along the Western Road. + +Yes, here, or hereabouts, they met + To hold their racial talks and such-- +To barter beads for Whitby jet, + And tin for gay shell torques and such. + +But long and long before that time + (When bison used to roam on it) +Did Taffy and her Daddy climb + That Down, and had their home on it. + +Then beavers built in Broadstonebrook + And made a swamp where Bramley stands; +And bears from Shere would come and look + For Taffimai where Shamley stands. + +The Wey, that Taffy called Wagai, + Was more than six times bigger then; +And all the Tribe of Tegumai + They cut a noble figure then! + + +II + +Of all the Tribe of Tegumai + Who cut that figure, none remain,-- +On Merrow Down the cuckoos cry-- + The silence and the sun remain. + +But as the faithful years return + And hearts unwounded sing again, +Comes Taffy dancing through the fern + To lead the Surrey spring again. + +Her brows are bound with bracken-fronds, + And golden elf-locks fly above; +Her eyes are bright as diamonds + And bluer than the sky above. + +In mocassins and deer-skin cloak, + Unfearing, free and fair she flits, +And lights her little damp-wood smoke + To show her Daddy where she flits. + +For far--oh, very far behind, + So far she cannot call to him, +Comes Tegumai alone to find + The daughter that was all to him. + + + + +OLD MOTHER LAIDINWOOL + + +'Old Mother Laidinwool had nigh twelve months been dead. +She heard the hops was doing well, an' so popped up her head,' +For said she: 'The lads I've picked with when I was young and fair, +They're bound to be at hopping and I'm bound to meet 'em there!' + + _Let me up and go + Back to the work I know, Lord! + Back to the work I know, Lord! + For it's dark where I lie down, My Lord! + An' it's dark where I lie down!_ + +Old Mother Laidinwool, she give her bones a shake, +An' trotted down the churchyard path as fast as she could make. +She met the Parson walking, but she says to him, says she: +'Oh don't let no one trouble for a poor old ghost like me!' + +'Twas all a warm September an' the hops had flourished grand, +She saw the folks get into 'em with stockin's on their hands; +An' none of 'em was foreigners but all which she had known, +And old Mother Laidinwool she blessed 'em every one. + +She saw her daughters picking, an' their children them beside, +An' she moved among the babies an' she stilled 'em when they cried. +She saw their clothes was bought, not begged, an' they was clean an' fat, +An' old Mother Laidinwool she thanked the Lord for that. + +Old Mother Laidinwool she waited on all day +Until it come too dark to see an' people went away-- +Until it come too dark to see an' lights began to show, +An' old Mother Laidinwool she hadn't where to go. + +Old Mother Laidinwool she give her bones a shake, +An' trotted back to churchyard-mould as fast as she could make. +She went where she was bidden to an' there laid down her ghost, ... +An' the Lord have mercy on you in the Day you need it most! + + _Let me in again, + Out of the wet an' rain, Lord! + Out of the dark an rain, Lord! + For it's best as you shall say, My Lord! + An' it's best as you shall say!_ + + + + +CHAPTER HEADINGS + + +JUST-SO STORIES + + +When the cabin port-holes are dark and green + Because of the seas outside; +When the ship goes _wop_ (with a wiggle between) +And the steward falls into the soup-tureen, + And the trunks begin to slide; +When Nursey lies on the floor in a heap, +And Mummy tells you to let her sleep, +And you aren't waked or washed or dressed, +Why, then you will know (if you haven't guessed) +You're 'Fifty North and Forty West!' + + _How the Whale got his Throat._ + + +The Camel's hump is an ugly lump + Which well you may see at the Zoo; +But uglier yet is the hump we get + From having too little to do. + +Kiddies and grown-ups too-oo-oo, +If we haven't enough to do-oo-oo. + We get the hump-- + Cameelious hump-- +The hump that is black and blue! + +We climb out of bed with a frouzly head + And a snarly-yarly voice. +We shiver and scowl and we grunt and we growl + At our bath and our boots and our toys; + +And there ought to be a corner for me +(And I know there is one for you) + When we get the hump-- + Cameelious hump-- +The hump that is black and blue! + +The cure for this ill is not to sit still, + Or frowst with a book by the fire; +But to take a large hoe and a shovel also, + And dig till you gently perspire; + +And then you will find that the sun and the wind, +And the Djinn of the Garden too, + Have lifted the hump-- + The horrible hump-- +The hump that is black and blue! + +I get it as well as you-oo-oo-- +If I haven't enough to do-oo-oo! + We all get hump-- + Cameelious hump-- +Kiddies and grown-ups too! + + _How the Camel got his Hump._ + + +I am the Most Wise Baviaan, saying in most wise tones, +'Let us melt into the landscape--just us two by our lones.' +People have come--in a carriage--calling. But Mummy is there.... +Yes, I can go if you take me--Nurse says _she_ don't care. +Let's go up to the pig-styes and sit on the farmyard rails! +Let's say things to the bunnies, and watch 'em skitter their tails! +Let's--oh, _anything_, daddy, so long as it's you and me, +And going truly exploring, and not being in till tea! +Here's your boots (I've brought 'em), and here's your cap and stick, +And here's your pipe and tobacco. Oh, come along out of it--quick! + + _How the Leopard got his Spots._ + + +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 from nine till five, + For I am busy then, +As well as breakfast, lunch, and tea, + For they are hungry men. + +But different folk have different views; + I know a person small-- +She keeps ten million serving-men, + Who get no rest at all! +She sends 'em abroad on her own affairs, + From the second she opens her eyes-- +One million Hows, two million Wheres, + And seven million Whys! + + _The Elephant's Child._ + + +This is the mouth-filling song of the race that was run by a Boomer. +Run in a single burst--only event of its kind-- +Started by Big God Nqong from Warrigaborrigarooma, +Old Man Kangaroo first, Yellow-Dog Dingo behind. + +Kangaroo bounded away, his back-legs working like pistons-- +Bounded from morning till dark, twenty-five feet at a bound. +Yellow-Dog Dingo lay like a yellow cloud in the distance-- +Much too busy to bark. My! but they covered the ground! + +Nobody knows where they went, or followed the track that they flew in, +For that Continent hadn't been given a name. +They ran thirty degrees, from Torres Straits to the Leeuwin +(Look at the Atlas, please), then they ran back as they came. + +S'posing you could trot from Adelaide to the Pacific, +For an afternoon's run--half what these gentlemen did-- +You would feel rather hot, but your legs would develop terrific-- +Yes, my importunate son, you'd be a Marvellous Kid! + + _The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo._ + + +I've never sailed the Amazon, + I've never reached Brazil; +But the _Don_ and _Magdalena_, + They can go there when they will! + + Yes, weekly from Southampton, + Great steamers, white and gold, + Go rolling down to Rio + (Roll down--roll down to Rio!). + And I'd like to roll to Rio + Some day before I'm old! + +I've never seen a Jaguar, + Nor yet an Armadill-- +O dilloing in his armour, + And I s'pose I never will, + + Unless I go to Rio + These wonders to behold-- + Roll down--roll down to Rio-- + Roll really down to Rio! + Oh, I'd love to roll to Rio + Some day before I'm old! + + _The Beginning of the Armadilloes._ + + +China-going P. and O.'s +Pass Pau Amma's playground close, +And his Pusat Tasek lies +Near the track of most B.I.'s. +N.Y.K. and N.D.L. +Know Pau Amma's home as well +As the Fisher of the Sea knows +'Bens,' M.M.'s, and Rubattinos. +But (and this is rather queer) +A.T.L.'s can _not_ come here; +O. and O. and D.O.A. +Must go round another way. +Orient, Anchor, Bibby, Hall, +Never go that way at all. +U.C.S. would have a fit +If it found itself on it. +And if 'Beavers' took their cargoes +To Penang instead of Lagos, +Or a fat Shaw-Savill bore +Passengers to Singapore, +Or a White Star were to try a +Little trip to Sourabaya, +Or a B.S.A. went on +Past Natal to Cheribon, +Then great Mr. Lloyds would come +With a wire and drag them home! + + * * * * * + +You'll know what my riddle means +When you've eaten mangosteens. + + _The Crab that Played with the Sea._ + + +Pussy can sit by the fire and sing, + Pussy can climb a tree, +Or play with a silly old cork and string + To 'muse herself, not me. +But _I_ like _Binkie_ my dog, because + He knows how to behave; +So, _Binkie's_ the same as the First Friend was, + And I am the Man in the Cave! + +Pussy will play man-Friday till + It's time to wet her paw +And make her walk on the window-sill + (For the footprint Crusoe saw); +Then she fluffles her tail and mews, + And scratches and won't attend. +But _Binkie_ will play whatever I choose, + And he is my true First Friend! + +Pussy will rub my knees with her head + Pretending she loves me hard; +But the very minute I go to my bed + Pussy runs out in the yard, +And there she stays till the morning-light; + So I know it is only pretend; +But _Binkie_, he snores at my feet all night, + And he is my Firstest Friend! + + _The Cat that Walked by Himself_ + + +There was never a Queen like Balkis, + From here to the wide world's end; +But Balkis talked to a butterfly + As you would talk to a friend. + +There was never a King like Solomon, + Not since the world began; +But Solomon talked to a butterfly + As a man would talk to a man. + +_She_ was Queen of Sabæa-- + And _he_ was Asia's Lord-- +But they both of 'em talked to butterflies + When they took their walks abroad! + + _The Butterfly that Stamped._ + + + + +THE LOOKING-GLASS + +_(A Country Dance)_ + + +_Queen Bess was Harry's daughter. Stand forward partners all! +She danced King Philip down-a down, +And left her shoe to show 'twas true-- + (The very tune I'm playing you) +In Norgem at Brickwall!_ + +The Queen was in her chamber, and she was middling old, +Her petticoat was satin, and her stomacher was gold. +Backwards and forwards and sideways did she pass, +Making up her mind to face the cruel looking-glass. +The cruel looking-glass that will never show a lass +As comely or as kindly or as young as what she was! + +_Queen Bess was Harry's daughter. Now hand your partners all!_ +The Queen was in her chamber, a-combing of her hair. +There came Queen Mary's spirit and It stood behind her chair. +Singing, 'Backwards and forwards and sideways may you pass, +But I will stand behind you till you face the looking-glass. +The cruel looking-glass that will never show a lass +As lovely or unlucky or as lonely as I was!' + +_Queen Bess was Harry's daughter.--Now turn your partners all!_ +The Queen was in her chamber, a-weeping very sore. +There came Lord Leicester's spirit and It scratched upon the door, +Singing, 'Backwards and forwards and sideways may you pass, +But I will walk beside you till you face the looking-glass. +The cruel looking-glass that will never show a lass +As hard and unforgiving or as wicked as you was!' + +_Queen Bess was Harry's daughter. Now kiss your +partners all!_ + +The Queen was in her chamber; her sins were on her head. +She looked the spirits up and down and statelily she said:-- +Backwards and forwards and sideways though I've been, +Yet I am Harry's daughter and I am England's Queen!' +And she faced the looking-glass (and whatever else there was), +And she saw her day was over and she saw her beauty pass +In the cruel looking-glass, that can always hurt a lass +More hard than any ghost there is or any man there was! + + + + +THE QUEEN'S MEN + + +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 +They beckoned it to close-- +Close in confusion and destruction o'er them. + +They did not stay to ask +What prize should crown their task, +Well sure that prize was such as no man strives for; +But passed into eclipse, +Her kiss upon their lips-- +Even Belphoebe's, whom they gave their lives for! + + + + +THE CITY OF SLEEP + + +Over the edge of the purple down, + Where the single lamplight gleams. +Know ye the road to the Merciful Town + That is hard by the Sea of Dreams-- +Where the poor may lay their wrongs away, + And the sick may forget to-weep? +But we--pity us! Oh, pity us! + We wakeful; ah, pity us!-- +We must go back with Policeman Day-- + Back from the City of Sleep! + +Weary they turn from the scroll and crown, + Fetter and prayer and plough-- +They that go up to the Merciful Town, + For her gates are closing now. +It is their right in the Baths of Night + Body and soul to steep, +But we--pity us! ah, pity us! + We wakeful; oh, pity us!-- +We must go back with Policeman Day-- + Back from the City of Sleep! + +Over the edge of the purple down, + Ere the tender dreams begin, +Look--we may look--at the Merciful Towns + But we may not enter in! +Outcasts all, from her guarded wall + Back to our watch we creep: +We--pity us! ah, pity us! + We wakeful; oh, pity us!-- +We that go back with Policeman Day-- + Back from the City of Sleep! + + + + +THE WIDOWER + + +For a season there must be pain-- +For a little, little space +I shall lose the sight of her face, +Take back the old life again +While She is at rest in her place. + +For a season this pain must endure-- +For a little, little while +I shall sigh more often than smile, +Till Time shall work me a cure, +And the pitiful days beguile. + +For that season we must be apart, +For a little length of years, +Till my life's last hour nears, +And, above the beat of my heart, +I hear Her voice in my ears. + +But I shall not understand-- +Being set on some later love, +Shall not know her for whom I strove, +Till she reach me forth her hand, +Saying, 'Who but I have the right?' +And out of a troubled night +Shall draw me safe to the land. + + + + +THE PRAYER OF MIRIAM COHEN + + +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 +Of saving flesh and bone, +Lest we should dream what dream awaits +The soul escaped alone. + +Thy Path, Thy Purposes conceal +From our beleaguered realm, +Lest any shattering whisper steal +Upon us and o'erwhelm. + +A veil 'twixt us and Thee, Good Lord, +A veil 'twixt us and Thee, +Lest we should hear too clear, too clear, +And unto madness see! + + + + +THE SONG OF THE LITTLE HUNTER + + +Ere Mor the Peacock flutters, ere the Monkey People cry, + Ere Chil the Kite swoops down a furlong sheer, +Through the Jungle very softly flits a shadow and a sigh-- + He is Fear, O Little Hunter, he is Fear! +Very softly down the glade runs a waiting, watching shade, + And the whisper spreads and widens far and near. +And the sweat is on thy brow, for he passes even now-- + He is Fear, O Little Hunter, he is Fear! + +Ere the moon has climbed the mountain, ere the rocks are ribbed with light, + When the downward-dipping trails are dank and drear, + +Comes a breathing hard behind thee--_snuffle-snuffle_ through the night-- + It is Fear, O Little Hunter, it is Fear! +On thy knees and draw the bow; bid the shrilling arrow go; + In the empty, mocking thicket plunge the spear! +But thy hands are loosed and weak, and the blood has left thy cheek-- + It is Fear, O Little Hunter, it is Fear! + +When the heat-cloud sucks the tempest, when the slivered pine-trees fall, + When the blinding, blaring rain-squalls lash and veer, +Through the war-gongs of the thunder rings a voice more loud than all-- + It is Fear, O Little Hunter, it is Fear! +Now the spates are banked and deep; now the footless boulders leap-- + Now the lightning shows each littlest leaf-rib clear-- +But thy throat is shut and dried, and thy heart against thy side + Hammers: Fear, O Little Hunter--this is Fear! + + + + +GOW'S WATCH + + +ACT II. SCENE 2 + + +_The pavilion in the Gardens. Enter Ferdinand and the King_ + +_Ferdinand_. Your tiercel's too long at hack. Sir. +He's no eyass +But a passage-hawk that footed ere we caught him. +Dangerously free o' the air. Faith, were he mine +(As mine's the glove he binds to for his tirings) +I'd fly him with a make-hawk. He's in yarak +Plumed to the very point. So manned, so weathered! +Give him the firmament God made him for. +And what shall take the air of him? + +_The King_. A young wing yet. +Bold--overbold on the perch, but, think you, +Ferdinand, +He can endure the tall skies yonder? Cozen +Advantage out of the teeth of the hurricane? +Choose his own mate against the lammer-geier? +Ride out a night-long tempest, hold his pitch +Between the lightning and the cloud it leaps from, +Never too pressed to kill? + +_Ferdinand_. I'll answer for him. +Bating all parable, I know the Prince. +There's a bleak devil in the young, my Lord; +God put it there to save 'em from their elders +And break their father's heart, but bear them scatheless +Through mire and thorns and blood if need be. + Think +What our prime saw! Such glory, such achievements +As now our children, wondering at, examine +Themselves to see if they shall hardly equal. +But what cared we while we wrought the wonders? + Nothing! +The rampant deed contented. + +_The King_. Little enough, God knows! But afterwards? After-- +There comes the reckoning. I would save him that. + +_Ferdinand_. Save him dry scars that ache of winter-nights. +Worn out self-pity and as much of knowledge +As makes old men fear judgment? Then loose him--loose him, +A' God's name loose him to adventure early! +And trust some random pike, or half-backed horse, +Besides what's caught in Italy, to save him. + +_The King_. I know. I know. And yet +... What stirs in the garden? + +_Enter Gow and a Gardener bearing the Prince's body_ + +_Ferdinand_.(Gods give me patience!) Gow and a gardener +Bearing some load along in the dusk to the dunghill. +Nay--a dead branch--But as I said, the Prince---- + +_The King. _They've set it down. Strange that +they work so late. + +_Gow (setting down the body)_. Heark, you unsanctified +fool, while I set out our story. We found it, this side +the North park wall which it had climbed to pluck +nectarines from the alley. Heark again! There +was a nectarine in its hand when we found it, and +the naughty brick that slipped from the coping +beneath its foot and so caused its death, lies now +under the wall for the King to see. + +_The King (above)_. The King to see! Why should +he? Who's the man? + +_Gow_. That is your tale. Swerve from it by so +much as the breadth of my dagger and here's your +instant reward. You heard not, saw not, and by the +Horns of ninefold-cuckolded Jupiter you thought not +nor dreamed not anything more or other! + +_The King_. Ninefold-cuckolded Jupiter. That's a +rare oath! Shall we look closer? + +_Ferdinand_. Not yet, my Lord! (I cannot hear him +breathe.) + +_Gardener_. The North park wall? It was so. +Plucking nectarines. It shall be. But how shall +I say if any ask why our Lady the Queen-- + +_Gow (stabs him)_. Thus! Hie after the Prince +and tell him y'are the first fruits of his nectarine +tree. Bleed there behind the laurels. + +_The King_. Why did Gow buffet the clown? +What said he? I'll go look. + +_Ferdinand (above)_. Save yourself! It is the +King! + +_Enter the King and Ferdinand to Gow_ + +_Gow_. God save you! This was the Prince! + +_The King_. The Prince! Not a dead branch? +(_Uncovers the face_.) +My flesh and blood! My son! my son! my son! + +_Ferdinand_ (_to Gow_). I had feared something of +this. And that fool yonder? + +_Gow_. Dead, or as good. He cannot speak. + +_Ferdinand_. Better so. + +_The King_. 'Loosed to adventure early!' Tell +the tale. + +_Gow_. Saddest truth alack! I came upon him +not a half hour since, fallen from the North park +wall over against the Deerpark side--dead--dead!--a +nectarine in his hand that the dear lad must have +climbed for, and plucked the very instant, look you, +that a brick slipped on the coping. 'Tis there now. +So I lifted him, but his neck was as you see--and +already cold. + +_The King_. Oh, very cold. But why should he +have troubled to climb? He was free of all the +fruit in my garden, God knows!... What, Gow? + +_Gow_. Surely, God knows! + +_The King_. A lad's trick. But I love him the +better for it.... True, he's past loving.... And +now we must tell our Queen. What a coil at the +day's end! She'll grieve for him. Not as I shall; +Ferdinand, but as youth for youth. They were +much of the same age. Playmate for playmate. +See, he wears her colours. That is the knot she +gave him last--last.... Oh God! When was +yesterday? + +_Ferdinand_. Come in! Come in, my Lord. +There's a dew falling. + +_The King_. He'll take no harm of it. I'll follow presently..... +He's all his mother's now and none of mine-- +Her very face on the bride-pillow. Yet I tricked her. +But that was later--and she never guessed. +I do not think he sinned much--he's too young-- +Much the same age as my Queen. God must not judge him +Too hardly for such slips as youth may fall in. +But I'll entreat that Throne. + +(_Prays by the body._) + +_Gow_. The Heavens hold up still. Earth opens +not and this dew's mere water. What shall a man +think of it all? _(To Gardener.)_ Not dead yet, +sirrah? I bade you follow the Prince. Despatch! + +_Gardener_. Some kind soul pluck out the dagger. +Why did you slay me? I'd done no wrong. I'd ha' +kept it secret till my dying day. But not now--not +now! I'm dying. The Prince fell from the Queen's +chamber window. I saw it in the nut alley. He +was---- + +_Ferdinand_. But what made you in the nut alley +at that hour? + +_Gardener_. No wrong. No more than another +man's wife. Jocasta of the still-room. She'd kissed +me good-night too; but that's over with the +rest.... I've stumbled on the Prince's beastly +loves, and I pay for all. Let me pass! + +_Gow_. Count it your fortune, honest man. You +would have revealed it to your woman at the next +meeting. You fleshmongers are all one feather. +_(Plucks out the dagger.)_ +Go in peace and lay your death to Fortune's door. +He's sped--thank Fortune! + +_Ferdinand_. Who knows not Fortune, glutted on +easy thrones, +Stealing from feasts as rare to coney-catch +Privily in the hedgerows for a clown. +With that same cruel-lustful hand and eye, +Those nails and wedges, that one hammer and lead, +And the very gerb of long-stored lightning loosed. +Yesterday 'gainst some King. + +_The King_. I have pursued with prayers where my heart warns me +My soul shall overtake-- + +_Enter the Queen_ + +_The King_. Look not! Wait till I tell you, +dearest.... Air!... +'Loosed to adventure early' +... I go late. _(Dies.)_ + +_Gow_. So! God hath cut off the Prince in his +pleasures. Gow, to save the King, hath silenced one +poor fool who knew how it befell, and now the +King's dead, needs only that the Queen should kill +Gow and all's safe for her this side o' the Judgment. +...Senor Ferdinand, the wind's easterly. I'm for +the road. + +_Ferdinand_. My horse is at the gate. God speed +you. Whither? + +_Gow_. To the Duke, if the Queen does not lay +hands on me before. However it goes, I charge you +bear witness, Senor Ferdinand, I served the old +King faithfully. To the death, Senor Ferdinand--to +the death! + + + + +THE WISHING CAPS + + +Life's all getting and giving. +I've only myself to give. +What shall I do for a living? +I've only one life to live. +End it? I'll not find another. +Spend it? But how shall I best? +Sure the wise plan is to live like a man +And Luck may look after the rest! +Largesse! Largesse, Fortune! +Give or hold at your will. +If I've no care for Fortune, +Fortune must follow me still. + +Bad Luck, she is never a lady, +But the commonest wench on the street, +Shuffling, shabby and shady, +Shameless to pass or meet. +Walk with her once--it's a weakness! +Talk to her twice--it's a crime! +Thrust her away when she gives you 'good day,' +And the besom won't board you next time. +Largesse! Largesse, Fortune! +What is Your Ladyship's mood? +If I've no care for Fortune, +My Fortune is bound to be good! + +Good Luck, she is never a lady, +But the cursedest quean alive! +Tricksey, wincing and jady, +Kittle to lead or drive. +Greet her--she's hailing a stranger! +Meet her--she's busking to leave. +Let her alone for a shrew to the bone, +And the hussy comes plucking your sleeve! +Largesse! Largesse, Fortune! +I'll neither follow nor flee. +If I don't run after Fortune, +Fortune must run after me! + + + + +'BY THE HOOF OF THE WILD GOAT' + + +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 Tarn, +But the Stone +Knows only her life is accursed +As she sinks from the light of the Sun +And alone! + +Oh Thou Who has builded the World, +Oh Thou Who has lighted the Sun, +Oh Thou Who has darkened the Tarn, +Judge Thou +The sin of the Stone that was hurled +By the goat from the light of the Sun, +As she sinks in the mire of the Tarn, +Even now--even now--even now! + + + + +SONG OF THE RED WAR-BOAT + +(A.D. 683) + + +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 all disaster +Of shipwreck, storm, or sword, +A Man must stand by his Master +When once he has pledged his word._ + +Raging seas have we rowed in, +But we seldom saw them thus; +Our master is angry with Odin-- +Odin is angry with us! +Heavy odds have we taken, +But never before such odds. +The Gods know they are forsaken, +We must risk the wrath of the Gods! + +Over the crest she flies from, +Into its hollow she drops, +Cringes and clears her eyes from +The wind-torn breaker-tops, +Ere out on the shrieking shoulder +Of a hill-high surge she drives. +Meet her! Meet her and hold her! +Pull for your scoundrel lives! + +The thunders bellow and clamour +The harm that they mean to do! +There goes Thor's own Hammer +Cracking the dark in two! +Close! But the blow has missed her, +Here comes the wind of the blow! +Row or the squall'll twist her +Broadside on to it!--_Row!_ + +Heark 'ee, Thor of the Thunder! +We are not here for a jest-- +For wager, warfare, or plunder, +Or to put your power to test. +This work is none of our wishing-- +We would house at home if we might-- +But our master is wrecked out fishing. +We go to find him to-night. + + +_For we hold that in all disaster-- +As the Gods Themselves have said-- +A Man must stand by his Master +Till one of the two is dead._ + + +That is our way of thinking, +Now you can do as you will, +While we try to save her from sinking +And hold her head to it still. +Bale her and keep her moving, +Or she'll break her back in the trough.... +Who said the weather's improving, +Or the swells are taking off? + +Sodden, and chafed and aching, +Gone in the loins and knees-- +No matter--the day is breaking, +And there's far less weight to the seas! +Up mast, and finish baling-- +In oars, and out with the mead-- +The rest will be two-reef sailing.... +That was a night indeed! + +_But we hold that in all disaster +(And faith, we have found it true!) +If only you stand by your master, +The Gods will stand by you!_ + + + + +MORNING SONG IN THE JUNGLE + + +One moment past our bodies cast + No shadow on the plain; +Now clear and black they stride our track, + And we run home again. +In morning hush, each rock and bush + Stands hard, and high, and raw: +Then give the Call: '_Good rest to all_ + _That keep the Jungle Law!'_ + +Now horn and pelt our peoples melt + In covert to abide; +Now, crouched and still, to cave and hill + Our Jungle Barons glide. +Now, stark and plain, Man's oxen strain, + That draw the new-yoked plough; +Now, stripped and dread, the dawn is red + Above the lit _talao_. + +Ho! Get to lair! The sun's aflare + Behind the breathing grass: +And creaking through the young bamboo + The warning whispers pass. +By day made strange, the woods we range + With blinking eyes we scan; +While down the skies the wild duck cries: + '_The Day--the Day to Man!_' + +The dew is dried that drenched our hide, + Or washed about our way; +And where we drank, the puddled bank + Is crisping into clay. +The traitor Dark gives up each mark + Of stretched or hooded claw; +Then hear the Call: '_Good rest to all + That keep the Jungle Law!_' + + + + +BLUE ROSES + + +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 love had died, +Seeking with her latest breath +Roses from the arms of Death. + +It may be beyond the grave +She shall find what she would have. +Mine was but an idle quest-- +Roses white and red are best. + + + + +A RIPPLE SONG + + +Once a 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 ripple saith; +'Wait awhile, for I am Death!'_ + +'Where my lover calls I go-- + Shame it were to treat him coldly-- +'Twas a fish that circled so, + Turning over boldly.' + +_Dainty foot and tender heart, +Wait the loaded ferry-cart. +'Wait, ah, wait!' the ripple saith; +'Maiden, wait, for I am Death!'_ + +'When my lover calls I haste-- + Dame Disdain was never wedded!' +Ripple-ripple round her waist, + Clear the current eddied. + +_Foolish heart and faithful hand, +Little feet that touched no land. +Far away the ripple sped, +Ripple--ripple--running red!_ + + + + +BUTTERFLIES + + +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. + +Then to quiet them comes their father +And stills the riot of pain and grief, +Saying, 'Little ones, go and gather +Out of my garden a cabbage-leaf. + +'You will find on it whorls and clots of +Dull grey eggs that, properly fed, +Turn, by way of the worm, to lots of +Glorious butterflies raised from the dead...,' + +'Heaven is beautiful, Earth is ugly,' +The three-dimensioned preacher saith, +So we must not look where the snail and the slug lie +For Psyche's birth.... And that is our death! + + + + +MY LADY'S LAW + + +The Law whereby my lady moves +Was never Law to me, +But 'tis enough that she approves +Whatever Law it be. + +For in that Law, and by that Law, +My constant course I'll steer; +Not that I heed or deem it dread, +But that she holds it dear. + +Tho' Asia sent for my content +Her richest argosies, +Those would I spurn, and bid return, +If that should give her ease. + +With equal heart I'd watch depart +Each spicèd sail from sight, +Sans bitterness, desiring less +Great gear than her delight. + +Though Kings made swift with many a gift +My proven sword to hire, +I would not go nor serve 'em so, +Except at her desire. + +With even mind, I'd put behind +Adventure and acclaim, +And clean give o'er, esteeming more +Her favour than my fame. + +Yet such am I, yea such am I-- +Sore bond and freest free, +The Law that sways my lady's ways +Is mystery to me! + + + + +THE NURSING SISTER + +_(Maternity Hospital)_ + + +Our sister sayeth such and such. +And we must bow to her behests; +Our sister toileth overmuch, +Our little maid that hath no breasts. + +A field untilled, a web unwove, +A flower withheld from sun or bee, +An alien in the courts of Love, +And--teacher unto such as we! + +We love her, but we laugh the while, +We laugh, but sobs are mixed with laughter; +Our sister hath no time to smile, +She knows not what must follow after. + +Wind of the South, arise and blow, +From beds of spice thy locks shake free; +Breathe on her heart that she may know, +Breathe on her eyes that she may see. + +Alas! we vex her with our mirth, +And maze her with most tender scorn, +Who stands beside the gates of Birth, +Herself a child--a child unborn! + +_Our sister sayeth such and such, +And we must bow to her behests; +Our sister toileth overmuch, +Our little maid that hath no breasts._ + + + + +THE LOVE SONG OF HAR DYAL + + +Alone upon the housetops to the North +I turn and watch the lightning in the sky-- +The glamour of thy footsteps in the North. +_Come back to me, Beloved, or I die._ + +Below my feet the still bazar is laid-- +Far, far below the weary camels lie-- +The camels and the captives of thy raid. +_Come back to me, Beloved, or I die!_ + +My father's wife is old and harsh with years, +And drudge of all my father's house am I-- +My bread is sorrow and my drink is tears. +_Come back to me. Beloved, or I die!_ + + + + +A DEDICATION + + +And they were stronger hands than mine +That digged the Ruby from the earth-- +More cunning brains that made it worth +The large desire of a king, +And stouter hearts that through the brine +Went down the perfect Pearl to bring. + +Lo, I have wrought in common clay +Rude figures of a rough-hewn race, +Since pearls strew not the market-place +In this my town of banishment, +Where with the shifting dust I play, +And eat the bread of discontent. + +Yet is there life in that I make. +O thou who knowest, turn and see-- +As thou hast power over me +So have I power over these, +Because I wrought them for thy sake, +And breathed in them mine agonies. + +Small mirth was in the making--now +I lift the cloth that cloaks the clay, +And, wearied, at thy feet I lay +My wares, ere I go forth to sell. +The long bazar will praise, but thou-- +Heart of my heart--have I done well? + + + + +MOTHER O' MINE + + +If I were hanged on the highest hill, +_Mother o' mine, O mother o' mine!_ +I know whose love would follow me still, +_Mother o' mine, O mother o' mine!_ + +If I were drowned in the deepest sea, +_Mother o' mine, O mother o' mine!_ +I know whose tears would come down to me, +_Mother o' mine, O mother o' mine!_ + +If I were damned of body and soul, +I know whose prayers would make me whole, +_Mother o' mine, O mother o' mine!_ + + + + +THE ONLY SON + + +She dropped the bar, she shot the bolt, she fed the fire anew, +For she heard a whimper under the sill and a great grey paw came through. +The fresh flame comforted the hut and shone on the roof-beam, +And the Only Son lay down again and dreamed that he dreamed a dream. +The last ash fell from the withered log with the click of a falling spark, +And the Only Son woke up again, and called across the dark:-- +'Now was I born of womankind and laid in a mother's breast? +For I have dreamed of a shaggy hide whereon I went to rest? +And was I born of womankind and laid on a father's arm? +For I have dreamed of clashing teeth that guarded me from harm. +And was I born an Only Son and did I play alone? +For I have dreamed of comrades twain that bit me to the bone. +And did I break the barley-cake and steep it in the tyre? +For I have dreamed of a youngling kid new-riven from the byre. +For I have dreamed of a midnight sky and a midnight call to blood, +And red-mouthed shadows racing by, that thrust me from my food. +'Tis an hour yet and an hour yet to the rising of the moon, +But I can see the black roof-tree as plain as it were noon. +'Tis a league and a league to the Lena Falls where the trooping blackbuck go; +But I can hear the little fawn that bleats behind the doe. +'Tis a league and a league to the Lena Falls where the crop and the upland meet, +But I can smell the wet dawn-wind that wakes the sprouting wheat. +Unbar the door, I may not bide, but I must out and see +If those are wolves that wait outside or my own kin to me!' + + * * * * * + +She loosed the bar, she slid the bolt, she opened the door anon, +And a grey bitch-wolf came out of the dark and fawned on the Only Son! + + + + +MOWGLI'S SONG AGAINST PEOPLE + + +I will let loose against you the fleet-footed vines-- +I will call in the Jungle to stamp out your lines! + The roofs shall fade before it, + The house-beams shall fall, + And the _Karela_, the bitter _Karela_, + Shall cover it all! + +In the gates of these your councils my people shall sing, +In the doors of these your garners the Bat-folk shall cling; + And the snake shall be your watchman, + By a hearthstone unswept; + For the _Karela_, the bitter _Karela_, + Shall fruit where ye slept! + +Ye shall not see my strikers; ye shall hear them and guess; +By night, before the moon-rise, I will send for my cess, + And the wolf shall be your herdsman + By a landmark removed, + For the _Karela_, the bitter _Karela_, + Shall seed where ye loved! + +I will reap your fields before you at the hands of a host; +Ye shall glean behind my reapers for the bread that is lost; + And the deer shall be your oxen + On a headland untilled, + For the _Karela_, the bitter _Karela_, + Shall leaf where ye build! + +I have untied against you the club-footed vines-- +I have sent in the Jungle to swamp out your lines! + The trees--the trees are on you! + The house-beams shall fall, + And the _Karela_, the bitter _Karela_, + Shall cover you all! + + + + +ROMULUS AND REMUS + + +Oh, little did the Wolf-Child care, + When first he planned his home, +What City should arise and bear + The weight and state of Rome! + +A shiftless, westward-wandering tramp, + Checked by the Tiber flood, +He reared a wall around his camp + Of uninspired mud. + +But when his brother leaped the Wall + And mocked its height and make, +He guessed the future of it all + And slew him for its sake. + +Swift was the blow--swift as the thought + Which showed him in that hour +How unbelief may bring to naught + The early steps of Power. + +Foreseeing Time's imperilled hopes + Of Glory, Grace, and Love-- +All singers, Cæsars, artists, Popes-- + Would fail if Remus throve, + +He sent his brother to the Gods, + And, when the fit was o'er, +Went on collecting turves and clods + To build the Wall once more! + + + + +CHAPTER HEADINGS + + +THE JUNGLE BOOKS + + +Now Chil the Kite brings home the night + That Mang the Bat sets free-- +The herds are shut in byre and hut + For loosed till dawn are we. +This is the hour of pride and power, + Talon and tush and claw. +Oh hear the call!--Good hunting all + That keep the Jungle Law! + + _Mowgli's Brothers._ + + * * * * * + +His spots are the joy of the Leopard: his horns are the Buffalo's pride. +Be clean, for the strength of the hunter is known by the gloss of his hide. +If ye find that the bullock can toss you, or the heavy-browed Sambhur can gore; +Ye need not stop work to inform us. We knew it ten seasons before. +Oppress not the cubs of the stranger, but hail them as Sister and Brother, +For though they are little and fubsy, it may be the Bear is their mother. +'There is none like to me!' says the Cub in the pride of his earliest kill; +But the Jungle is large and the Cub he is small. Let him think and be still. + + _Kaa's Hunting._ + + * * * * * + +The stream is shrunk--the pool is dry, +And we be comrades, thou and I; +With fevered jowl and dusty flank +Each jostling each along the bank; +And, by one drouthy fear made still, +Foregoing thought of quest or kill. +Now 'neath his dam the fawn may see, +The lean Pack-wolf as cowed as he, +And the tall buck, unflinching, note +The fangs that tore his father's throat. +_The pools are shrunk--the streams are dry, +And we be playmates, thou and I, +Till yonder cloud--Good Hunting!--loose +The rain that breaks our Water Truce._ + + _How Fear Came._ + + * * * * * + +What of the hunting, hunter bold? + _Brother, the watch was long and cold._ +What of the quarry ye went to kill? + _Brother, he crops in the jungle still._ +Where is the power that made your pride? + _Brother, it ebbs from my flank and side._ +Where is the haste that ye hurry by? + _Brother, I go to my lair to die!_ + + _'Tiger-Tiger!'_ + + * * * * * + +Veil them, cover them, wall them round-- + Blossom, and creeper, and weed-- +Let us forget the sight and the sound, + The smell and the touch of the breed! + +Fat black ash by the altar-stone. + Here is the white-foot rain, +And the does bring forth in the fields unsown, + And none shall affright them again; +And the blind walls crumble, unknown, o'erthrown, + And none shall inhabit again! + + _Letting in the Jungle._ + + * * * * * + +These are the Four that are never content, that have never been filled since the Dews began-- +Jacala's mouth, and the glut of the Kite, and the hands of the Ape, and the Eyes of Man. + + _The King's Ankus._ + + * * * * * + +For our white and our excellent nights--for the nights of swift running, + Fair ranging, far-seeing, good hunting, sure cunning! +For the smells of the dawning, untainted, ere dew has departed! +For the rush through the mist, and the quarry blind-started! +For the cry of our mates when the sambhur has wheeled and is standing at bay! + For the risk and the riot of night! + For the sleep at the lair-mouth by day! + It is met, and we go to the fight. + Bay! O bay! + + _Red Dog._ + + * * * * * + +Man goes to Man! Cry the challenge through the Jungle! + He that was our Brother goes away. +Hear, now, and judge, O ye People of the Jungle,-- + Answer, who shall turn him--who shall stay? + +Man goes to Man! He is weeping in the Jungle: + He that was our Brother sorrows sore! +Man goes to Man! (Oh, we loved him in the Jungle!) + To the Man-Trail where we may not follow more. + + _The Spring Running._ + + * * * * * + +At the hole where he went in +Red-Eye called to Wrinkle-Skin. +Hear what little Red-Eye saith: +'Nag, come up and dance with death!' + +Eye to eye and head to head, + _(Keep the measure, Nag.)_ +This shall end when one is dead; + _(At thy pleasure, Nag.)_ + +Turn for turn and twist for twist-- + _(Run and hide thee, Nag.)_ +Hah! The hooded Death has missed! + _(Woe betide thee, Nag!)_ + + _'Rikki-Tikki-Tavi.'_ + + * * * * * + +Oh! hush thee, my baby, the night is behind us, + And black are the waters that sparkled so green. +The moon, o'er the combers, looks downward to find us + At rest in the hollows that rustle between. +Where billow meets billow, there soft be thy pillow; + Ah, weary wee flipperling, curl at thy ease! +The storm shall not wake thee, nor shark overtake thee, + Asleep in the arms of the slow-swinging seas. + + _The White Seal._ + + * * * * * + +You mustn't swim till you're six weeks old, + Or your head will be sunk by your heels; +And summer gales and Killer Whales + Are bad for baby seals. +Are bad for baby seals, dear rat, + As bad as bad can be; +But splash and grow strong, +And you can't be wrong, + Child of the Open Sea! + + _The White Seal._ + + * * * * * + +I will remember what I was, I am sick of rope and chain. + I will remember my old strength and all my forest affairs. +I will not sell my back to man for a bundle of sugar-cane. + I will go out to my own kind, and the wood-folk in their lairs. + +I will go out until the day, until the morning break, + Out to the winds' untainted kiss, the waters' clean caress. +I will forget my ankle-ring and snap my picket-stake. + I will revisit my lost loves, and playmates master-less! + + _Toomai of the Elephants._ + + * * * * * + +The People of the Eastern Ice, they are melting like the snow-- +They beg for coffee and sugar; they go where the white men go. +The People of the Western Ice, they learn to steal and fight; +They sell their furs to the trading-post; they sell their souls to the white. +The People of the Southern Ice, they trade with the whaler's crew; +Their women have many ribbons, but their tents are torn and few. +But the People of the Elder Ice, beyond the white man's ken-- +Their spears are made of the narwhal-horn, and they are the last of the Men! + + _Quiquern._ + + * * * * * + +When ye say to Tabaqui, 'My Brother!' when ye call the Hyena to meat, +Ye may cry the Full Truce with Jacala--the Belly that runs on four feet. + + _The Undertakers._ + + * * * * * + +The night we felt the earth would move + We stole and plucked him by the hand, +Because we loved him with the love + That knows but cannot understand. + +And when the roaring hillside broke, + And all our world fell down in rain, +We saved him, we the Little Folk; + But lo! he does not come again! + +Mourn now, we saved him for the sake + Of such poor love as wild ones may. +Mourn ye! Our brother will not wake, + And his own kind drive us away! + + + _The Miracle of Purun Bhagat._ + + + + +THE EGG-SHELL + + +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 get from me. +And that is the finish of _him_!' she said. +And the Egg-shell went to sea. + +The wind fell dead with the midnight-- +The fog shut down like a sheet, +When the Witch of the North heard the Egg-shell +Feeling by hand for a fleet. +'Get!' she said, 'or you're gone,' she said, +But the little Blue Devil said 'No!' +'The sights are just coming on,' he said, +And he let the Whitehead go. + +The wind got up with the morning-- +And the fog blew off with the rain, +When the Witch of the North saw the Egg-shell +And the little Blue Devil again. +'Did you swim?' she said. 'Did you sink?' she said, +And the little Blue Devil replied: +'For myself I swam, but I think,' he said, +'There's somebody sinking outside.' + + + + +THE KING'S TASK + + +After the sack of the City, when Rome was sunk to a name, +In the years that the lights were darkened, or ever St. Wilfrid came, +Low on the borders of Britain (the ancient poets sing) +Between the Cliff and the Forest there ruled a Saxon King. +Stubborn all were his people from cottar to overlord-- +Not to be cowed by the cudgel, scarce to be schooled by the sword; +Quick to turn at their pleasure, cruel to cross in their mood, +And set on paths of their choosing as the hogs of Andred's Wood. +Laws they made in the Witan--the laws of flaying and fine-- +Common, loppage and pannage, the theft and the track of kine-- +Statutes of tun and market for the fish and the malt and the meal-- +The tax on the Bramber packhorse and the tax on the Hastings keel. +Over the graves of the Druids and under the wreck of Rome +Rudely but surely they bedded the plinth of the days to come. +Behind the feet of the Legions and before the Norseman's ire, +Rudely but greatly begat they the framing of state and shire. +Rudely but deeply they laboured, and their labour stands till now, +If we trace on our ancient headlands the twist of their eight-ox plough. +There came a king from Hamtun, by Bosenham he came. +He filled Use with slaughter, and Lewes he gave to flame. +He smote while they sat in the Witan--sudden he smote and sore, +That his fleet was gathered at Selsea ere they mustered at Cymen's Ore. +Blithe went the Saxons to battle, by down and wood and mere, +But thrice the acorns ripened ere the western mark was clear. +Thrice was the beechmast gathered, and the Beltane fires burned +Thrice, and the beeves were salted thrice ere the host returned. +They drove that king from Hamtun, by Bosenham o'erthrown, +Out of Rugnor to Wilton they made his land their own. +Camps they builded at Gilling, at Basing and Alresford, +But wrath abode in the Saxons from cottar to overlord. +Wrath at the weary war-game, at the foe that snapped and ran +Wolf-wise feigning and flying, and wolf-wise snatching his man. +Wrath for their spears unready, their levies new to the blades-- +Shame for the helpless sieges and the scornful ambuscades. +At hearth and tavern and market, wherever the tale was told, +Shame and wrath had the Saxons because of their boasts of old. +And some would drink and deny it, and some would pray and atone; +But the most part, after their anger, avouched that the sin was their own. +Wherefore, girding together, up to the Witan they came, +And as they had shouldered their bucklers so did they shoulder their blame. +For that was the wont of the Saxons (the ancient poets sing), +And first they spoke in the Witan and then they spoke to the King: +'Edward King of the Saxons, thou knowest from sire to son, +'One is the King and his People--in gain and ungain one. +'Count we the gain together. With doubtings and spread dismays +'We have broken a foolish people--but after many days. +'Count we the loss together. Warlocks hampered our arms, +'We were tricked as by magic, we were turned as by charms. +'We went down to the battle and the road was plain to keep, +'But our angry eyes were holden, and we struck as they strike in sleep-- +'Men new shaken from slumber, sweating, with eyes a-stare +'Little blows uncertain dealt on the useless air. +'Also a vision betrayed us, and a lying tale made bold +'That we looked to hold what we had not and to have what we did not hold: +'That a shield should give us shelter--that a sword should give us power-- +'A shield snatched up at a venture and a hilt scarce handled an hour: +'That being rich in the open, we should be strong in the close-- +'And the Gods would sell us a cunning for the day that we met our foes. +'This was the work of wizards, but not with our foe they bide, +'In our own camp we took them, and their names are Sloth and Pride. +'Our pride was before the battle: our sloth ere we lifted spear, +'But hid in the heart of the people as the fever hides in the mere, +'Waiting only the war-game, the heat of the strife to rise +'As the ague fumes round Oxeney when the rotting reed-bed dries. +'But now we are purged of that fever--cleansed by the letting of blood, +'Something leaner of body--something keener of mood. +'And the men new-freed from the levies return to the fields again, +'Matching a hundred battles, cottar and lord and thane. +'And they talk aloud in the temples where the ancient wargods are. +'They thumb and mock and belittle the holy harness of war. +'They jest at the sacred chariots, the robes and the gilded staff. +'These things fill them with laughter, they lean on their spears and laugh. +'The men grown old in the war-game, hither and thither they range-- +'And scorn and laughter together are sire and dam of change; +'And change may be good or evil--but we know not what it will bring, +'Therefore our King must teach us. That is thy task, O King!' + + + + +POSEIDON'S LAW + + +When the robust and Brass-bound Man commissioned first for sea +His fragile raft, Poseidon laughed, and 'Mariner,' said he, +'Behold, a Law immutable I lay on thee and thine, +That never shall ye act or tell a falsehood at my shrine. + +'Let Zeus adjudge your landward kin, whose votive meal and salt +At easy-cheated altars win oblivion for the fault, +But you the unhoodwinked wave shall test--the immediate gulf condemn-- +Except ye owe the Fates a jest, be slow to jest with them. + +'Ye shall not clear by Greekly speech, nor cozen from your path +The twinkling shoal, the leeward beach, and Hadria's white-lipped wrath; +Nor tempt with painted cloth for wood my fraud-avenging hosts; +Nor make at all, or all make good, your bulwarks and your boasts. + +'Now and henceforward serve unshod, through wet and wakeful shifts, +A present and oppressive God, but take, to aid, my gifts-- +The wide and windward-opening eye, the large and lavish hand, +The soul that cannot tell a lie--except upon the land!' + +In dromond and in catafract--wet, wakeful, windward-eyed-- +He kept Poseidon's Law intact (his ship and freight beside), +But, once discharged the dromond's hold, the bireme beached once more, +Splendaciously mendacious rolled the Brass-bound Man ashore. + +The thranite now and thalamite are pressures low and high, +And where three hundred blades bit white the twin-propellers ply: +The God that hailed, the keel that sailed, are changed beyond recall, +But the robust and Brass-bound Man he is not changed at all! + +From Punt returned, from Phormio's Fleet, from Javan and Gadire, +He strongly occupies the seat about the tavern fire, +And, moist with much Falernian or smoked Massilian juice, +Revenges there the Brass-bound Man his long-enforced truce! + + + + +A TRUTHFUL SONG + + +The Bricklayer: + + _I tell this tale, which is strictly true, + Just by way of convincing you + How very little, since things mere made, + Things have altered in the 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 to watch us working there. + + Now there wasn't a trick in brick or stone + That this young man hadn't seen or known; + Nor there wasn't a tool from trowel to maul + But this young man could use 'em all! + + Then up and spoke the plumbyers bold, + Which was laying the pipes for the hot and cold: + 'Since you with us have made so free, + Will you kindly say what your name might be?' + + The young man kindly answered them: + 'It might be Lot or Methusalem, + Or it might be Moses (a man I hate), + Whereas it is Pharaoh surnamed the Great. + + 'Your glazing is new and your plumbing's strange, + But otherwise I perceive no change, + And in less than a month if you do as I bid + I'd learn you to build me a Pyramid!' + +The Sailor: + + _I tell this tale, which is stricter true, + Just by way of convincing you + How very little, since things was made, + Things have altered in the shipwright's trade._ + + In Blackwall Basin yesterday + A China barque re-fitting lay, + When a fat old man with snow-white hair + Came up to watch us working there. + + Now there wasn't a knot which the riggers knew + But the old man made it--and better too; + Nor there wasn't a sheet, or a lift, or a brace. + But the old man knew its lead and place. + + Then up and spoke the caulkyers bold, + Which was packing the pump in the afterhold: + 'Since you with us have made so free, + Will you kindly tell what your name might be?' + + The old man kindly answered them: + 'It might be Japheth, it might be Shem, + Or it might be Ham (though his skin was dark), + Whereas it is Noah, commanding the Ark. + + 'Your wheel is new and your pumps are strange, + But otherwise I perceive no change, + And in less than a week, if she did not ground, + I'd sail this hooker the wide world round!' + +Both: + + _We tell these tales, which are strictest true, + Just by way of convincing you + How very little, since things was made, + Anything alters in any one's trade._ + + + + +A SMUGGLER'S SONG + + +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 asks 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 the Clerk; + Laces for a lady, letters for a spy, +And watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by! + +Running round the woodlump if you chance to find +Little barrels, roped and tarred, all full of brandy-wine, +Don't you shout to come and look, nor use 'em for your play. +Put the brishwood back again--and they'll be gone next day! + +If you see the stable-door setting open wide; +If you see a tired horse lying down inside; +If your mother mends a coat cut about and tore; +If the lining's wet and warm--don't you ask no more! + +If you meet King George's men, dressed in blue and red, +You be careful what you say, and mindful what is said. +If they call you 'pretty maid,' and chuck you 'neath the chin. +Don't you tell where no one is, nor yet where no one's been! + +Knocks and footsteps round the house--whistles after dark-- +You've no call for running out till the house-dogs bark. +_Trusty's_ here, and _Pinchers_ here, and see how dumb they lie-- +_They_ don't fret to follow when the Gentlemen go by! + +If you do as you've been told, 'likely there's a chance, +You'll be give a dainty doll, all the way from France, +With a cap of Valenciennes, and a velvet hood-- +A present from the Gentlemen, along o' being good! + Five and twenty ponies, + Trotting through the dark-- + Brandy for the Parson, + 'Baccy for the Clerk. +Them that asks no questions isn't told a lie-- +Watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by! + + + + +KING HENRY VII. AND THE SHIPWRIGHTS + +(A.D. 1487) + + +Harry, our King in England, from London town is gone, +And comen to Hamull on the Hoke in the countie of Suthampton. +For there lay _The Mary of the Tower_, his ship of war so strong, +And he would discover, certaynely, if his shipwrights did him wrong. + +He told not none of his setting forth, nor yet where he would go +(But only my Lord of Arundel), and meanly did he show, +In an old jerkin and patched hose that no man might him mark; +With his frieze hood and cloak above, he looked like any clerk. + +He was at Hamull on the Hoke about the hour of the tide. +And saw the _Mary_ haled into dock, the winter to abide, +With all her tackle and habiliments which are the King his own; +But then ran on his false shipwrights and stripped her to the bone. + +They heaved the main-mast overboard, that was of a trusty tree, +And they wrote down it was spent and lost by force of weather at sea. +But they sawen it into planks and strakes as far as it might go, +To maken beds for their own wives and little children also. + +There was a knave called Slingawai, he crope beneath the deck. +Crying: 'Good felawes, come and see! The ship is nigh a wreck! +For the storm that took our tall main-mast, it blew so fierce and fell, +Alack! it hath taken the kettles and pans, and this brass pott as well!' + +With that he set the pott on his head and hied him up the hatch, +While all the shipwrights ran below to find what they might snatch; +All except Bob Brygandyne and he was a yeoman good, +He caught Slingawai round the waist and threw him on to the mud. + +'I have taken plank and rope and nail, without the King his leave, +After the custom of Portesmouth, but I will not suffer a thief. +Nay, never lift up thy hand at me! There's no clean hands in the trade-- +Steal in measure,' quo' Brygandyne. 'There's measure in all things made!' + +'Gramercy, yeoman!' said our King. 'Thy council liketh me.' +And he pulled a whistle out of his neck and whistled whistles three. +Then came my Lord of Arundel pricking across the down, +And behind him the Mayor and Burgesses of merry Suthampton town. + +They drew the naughty shipwrights up, with the kettles in their hands, +And bound them round the forecastle to wait the King's commands. +But 'Since ye have made your beds,' said the King, 'ye needs must lie thereon. +For the sake of your wives and little ones--felawes, get you gone!' + +When they had beaten Slingawai, out of his own lips +Our King appointed Brygandyne to be Clerk of all his ships. +'Nay, never lift up thy hands to me--there's no clean hands in the trade. +But steal in measure,' said Harry our King. 'There's measure in all things made!' + +_God speed the 'Mary of the Tower,' the 'Sovereign,' and 'Grace Dieu,' +The 'Sweepstakes' and the 'Mary Fortune,' and the 'Henry of Bristol' too! +All tall ships that sail on, the sea, or in our harbours stand, +That they may keep measure with Harry our King and peace in Engeland!_ + + + + +THE WET LITANY + + +When the water's countenance +Blurrs 'twixt glance and second glance; +When our tattered smokes forerun. +Ashen 'neath a silvered sun; +When the curtain of the haze +Shuts upon our helpless ways-- + Hear the Channel Fleet at sea; + _Libera nos Domine!_ + +When the engines' bated pulse +Scarcely thrills the nosing hulls; +When the wash along the side +Sounds, a sudden, magnified; +When the intolerable blast +Marks each blindfold minute passed; + +When the fog-buoy's squattering flight +Guides us through the haggard night; +When the warning bugle blows; +When the lettered doorways close; +When our brittle townships press, +Impotent, on emptiness; + +When the unseen leadsmen lean +Questioning a deep unseen; +When their lessened count they tell +To a bridge invisible; +When the hid and perilous +Cliffs return our cry to us; + +When the treble thickness spread +Swallows up our next-ahead; +When her siren's frightened whine +Shows her sheering out of line; +When, her passage undiscerned, +We must turn where she has turned, + Hear the Channel Fleet at sea: + _Libera nos Domine!_ + + + + +THE BALLAD OF MINEPIT SHAW + + +About the time that taverns shut + And men can buy no beer, +Two lads went up to the keepers' hut + To steal Lord Pelham's deer. + +Night and the liquor was in their heads-- + They laughed and talked no bounds, +Till they waked the keepers on their beds, + And the keepers loosed the hounds. + +They had killed a hart, they had killed a hind, + Ready to carry away, +When they heard a whimper down the wind + And they heard a bloodhound bay. + +They took and ran across the fern, + Their crossbows in their hand, +Till they met a man with a green lantern + That called and bade 'em stand. + +'What are ye doing, O Flesh and Blood, + And what's your foolish will, +That you must break into Minepit Wood + And wake the Folk of the Hill?' + +'Oh, we've broke into Lord Pelham's park, + And killed Lord Pelham's deer, +And if ever you heard a little dog bark + You'll know why we come here. + +'We ask you let us go our way, + As fast as we can flee, +For if ever you heard a bloodhound bay + You'll know how pressed we be.' + +'Oh, lay your crossbows on the bank + And drop the knife from your hand, +And though the hounds are at your flank + I'll save you where you stand!' + +They laid their crossbows on the bank, + They threw their knives in the wood, +And the ground before them opened and sank + And saved 'em where they stood. + +'Oh, what's the roaring in our ears + That strikes us well-nigh dumb?' +'Oh, that is just how things appears + According as they come.' + +'What are the stars before our eyes + That strike us well-nigh blind?' +'Oh, that is just how things arise + According as you find.' + +'And why's our bed so hard to the bones + Excepting where it's cold?' +'Oh, that's because it is precious stones + Excepting where 'tis gold. + +'Think it over as you stand. + For I tell you without fail, +If you haven't got into Fairyland + You're not in Lewes Gaol.' + +All night long they thought of it, + And, come the dawn, they saw +They'd tumbled into a great old pit, + At the bottom of Minepit Shaw. + +And the keepers' hound had followed 'em close, + And broke her neck in the fall; +So they picked up their knives and their crossbows + And buried the dog. That's all. + +But whether the man was a poacher too + Or a Pharisee[A] so bold-- +I reckon there's more things told than are true, + And more things true than are told! + +[Footnote A: A fairy.] + + + + +HERIOT'S FORD + + +'What's that that hirples at my side?' +_The foe that you must fight, my lord._ +'That rides as fast as I can ride?' +_The shadow of your might, my lord._ + +'Then wheel my horse against the foe!' +_He's down and overpast, my lord._ +_You war against the sunset glow,_ +_The judgment follows fast, my lord._ + +'Oh who will stay the sun's descent?' +_King Joshua he is dead, my lord._ +'I need an hour to repent!' +_'Tis what our sister said, my lord._ + +'Oh do not slay me in my sins!' +_You're safe awhile with us, my lord._ +'Nay, kill me ere my fear begins.' +_We would not serve you thus, my lord._ + +'Where is the doom that I must face?' +_Three little leagues away, my lord._ +'Then mend the horses' laggard pace!' +_We need them for next day, my lord._ + +'Next day--next day! Unloose my cords!' +_Our sister needed none, my lord. +You had no mind to face our swords, +And--where can cowards run, my lord?_ + +'You would not kill the soul alive?' +_'Twas thus our sister cried, my lord._ +'I dare not die with none to shrive.' +_But so our sister died, my lord._ + +'Then wipe the sweat from brow and cheek. +_It runnels forth afresh, my lord._ +'Uphold me--for the flesh is weak.' +_You've finished with the Flesh, my lord._ + + + + +FRANKIE'S TRADE + + +Old Horn to All Atlantic said: + _(A-hay O! To me O!')_ +'Now where did Frankie learn his trade? +For he ran me down with a three-reef mains'le.' + _(All round the Horn!)_ + +Atlantic answered:--'Not from me! +You'd better ask the cold North Sea, +For he ran me down under all plain canvas.' + _(All round the Horn!)_ + +The North Sea answered:--'He's my man, +For he came to me when he began-- +Frankie Drake in an open coaster. + _(All round the Sands!)_ + +'I caught him young and I used him sore, +So you never shall startle Frankie more, +Without capsizing Earth and her waters. + _(All round the Sands!)_ + +'I did not favour him at all. +I made him pull and I made him haul-- +And stand his trick with the common sailors. + _(All round the Sands!)_ + +'I froze him stiff and I fogged him blind. +And kicked him home with his road to find +By what he could see in a three-day snow-storm + _(All round the Sands!)_ + +'I learned him his trade o' winter nights, +'Twixt Mardyk Fort and Dunkirk lights +On a five-knot tide with the forts a-firing. + _(All round the Sands!)_ + +'Before his beard began to shoot, +I showed him the length of the Spaniard's foot-- +And I reckon he clapped the boot on it later. + _(All round the Sands!)_ + +'If there's a risk which you can make. +That's worse than he was used to take +Nigh every week in the way of his business; + _(All round the Sands!)_ + +'If there's a trick that you can try, +Which he hasn't met in time gone by, +Not once or twice, but ten times over; + _(All round the Sands!)_ + +'If you can teach him aught that's new, + _(A-hay O! To me O!)_ +I'll give you Bruges and Niewport too, +And the ten tall churches that stand between 'em.' + _Storm along my gallant Captains!_ + _(All round the Horn!)_ + + + + +THE JUGGLER'S SONG + + +When the drums begin to beat +Down the street, +When the poles are fetched and guyed, +When the tight-rope's stretched and tied, +When the dance-girls make salaam, +When the snake-bag wakes alarm, +When the pipes set up their drone, +When the sharp-edged knives are thrown, +When the red-hot coals are shown, +To be swallowed by and bye-- +_Arré_ Brethren, here come I! + +Stripped to loin-cloth in the sun, +Search me well and watch me close! +Tell me how my tricks are done-- +Tell me how the mango grows? +Give a man who is not made +To his trade +Swords to fling and catch again, +Coins to ring and snatch again, +Men to harm and cure again. +Snakes to charm and lure again-- +He'll be hurt by his own blade, +By his serpents disobeyed, +By his clumsiness bewrayed, +By the people laughed to scorn-- +So 'tis not with juggler born! + +Pinch of dust or withered flower, +Chance-flung nut or borrowed staff, +Serve his need and shore his power, +Bind the spell or loose the laugh! + + + + +THORKILD'S SONG + + +There's no wind along these seas. +_Out oars for Stavanger!_ +_Forward all for Stavanger!_ +So we must wake the white-ash breeze, +_Let fall for Stavanger!_ +_A long pull for Stavanger!_ + +Oh, hear the benches creak and strain! +_(A long pull for Stavanger!)_ +She thinks she smells the Northland rain! +_(A long pull for Stavanger!)_ + +She thinks she smells the Northland snow, +And she's as glad as we to go. + +She thinks she smells the Northland rime, +And the dear dark nights of winter-time. + +She wants to be at her own home pier, +To shift her sails and standing gear. + +She wants to be in her winter-shed. +To strip herself and go to bed. + +Her very bolts are sick for shore, +And we--we want it ten times more! + +So all you Gods that love brave men, +Send us a three-reef gale again! + +Send us a gale, and watch us come, +With close-cropped canvas slashing home! + +_But_--there's no wind on all these seas, +_A long pull for Stavanger!_ +So we must wake the white-ash breeze, +_A long pull for Stavanger!_ + + + + +'ANGUTIVAUN TAINA' + +Song of the Returning Hunter (Esquimaux). + + +Our gloves are stiff with the frozen blood, + Our furs with the drifted snow, +As we come in with the seal--the seal! + In from the edge of the floe. + +_An jana! Aua! Oha! Haq!_ + And the yelping dog-teams go, +And the long whips crack, and the men come back, + Back from the edge of the floe! + +We tracked our seal to his secret place, + We heard him scratch below, +We made our mark, and we watched beside, + Out on the edge of the floe. + +We raised our lance when he rose to breathe, + We drove it downward--so! +And we played him thus, and we killed him thus, + Out on the edge of the floe. + +Our gloves are glued with the frozen blood, + Our eyes with the drifting snow; +But we come back to our wives again, + Back from the edge of the floe! + +_Au jana! Aua! Oha! Haq! + And the loaded dog-teams go, +And the wives can hear their men come back, + Back from the edge of the floe!_ + + + + +HUNTING-SONG OF THE SEEONEE PACK + + +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-- + Once, twice and again! +And a wolf stole back, and a wolf stole back +To carry the word to the waiting pack, +And we sought and we found and we bayed on his track + Once, twice and again! + +As the dawn was breaking the Wolf Pack yelled + Once, twice and again! +Feet in the jungle that leave no mark! +Eyes that can see in the dark--the dark! +Tongue--give tongue to it! Hark! O hark! + Once, twice and again! + + + + +SONG OF THE MEN'S SIDE + +(Neolithic) + + +Once we feared The Beast--when he followed us we ran, + Ran very fast though we knew +It was not right that The Beast should master Man; + But what could we Flint-workers do? +The Beast only grinned at our spears round his ears-- + Grinned at the hammers that we made; +But now we will hunt him for the life with the Knife-- + And this is the Buyer of the Blade! + + _Room for his shadow on the grass--let it pass! + To left and right--stand clear! + This is the Buyer of the Blade--be afraid! + This is the great god Tyr!_ + +Tyr thought hard till he hammered out a plan, + For he knew it was not right +(And it _is_ not right) that The Beast should master Man; + So he went to the Children of the Night. +He begged a Magic Knife of their make for our sake. + When he begged for the Knife they said: +'The price of the Knife you would buy is an eye!' + And that was the price he paid. + + _Tell it to the Barrows of the Dead--run ahead! + Shout it so the Women's Side can hear! + This is the Buyer of the Blade--be afraid! + This is the great god Tyr!_ + +Our women and our little ones may walk on the Chalk, + As far as we can see them and beyond. +We shall not be anxious for our sheep when we keep + Tally at the shearing-pond. +We can eat with both our elbows on our knees, if we please, + We can sleep after meals in the sun; +For Shepherd of the Twilight is dismayed at the Blade, + Feet-in-the-Night have run! +Dog-without-a-Master goes away (Hai, Tyr, aie!), + Devil-in-the-Dusk has run! + +Then: + _Room for his shadow on the grass--let it pass! + To left and right--stand clear! + This is the Buyer of the Blade--be afraid! + This is the great god Tyr!_ + + + + +DARZEE'S CHAUNT + +(Sung in honour of Rikki-tikki-tavi) + + + Singer and tailor am I-- + Doubled the joys that I know-- + Proud of my lilt to the sky, + Proud of the house that I sew-- +Over and under, so weave I my music--so weave I the house that I sew. + + Sing to your fledglings again, + Mother, O lift up your head! + Evil that plagued us is slain, + Death in the garden lies dead. +Terror that hid in the roses is impotent--flung on the dung-hill and dead! + + Who hath delivered us, who? + Tell me his nest and his name. + Rikki, the valiant, the true, + Tikki, with eyeballs of flame, +Rik-tikki-tikki, the ivory-fanged, the hunter with eyeballs of flame. + + Give him the Thanks of the Birds, + Bowing with tail-feathers spread! + Praise him with nightingale-words-- + Nay, I will praise him instead. +Hear! I will sing you the praise of the bottle-tailed Rikki, with eyeballs of red! + +_(Here Rikki-tikki interrupted, and the rest of the song is lost.)_ + + + + +THE FOUR ANGELS + + +As Adam lay a-dreaming beneath the Apple Tree, +The Angel of the Earth came down, and offered Earth in fee. + But Adam did not need it, + Nor the plough he would not speed it, + Singing:--'Earth and Water, Air and Fire, + What more can mortal man desire?' + (The Apple Tree's in bud.) + +As Adam lay a-dreaming beneath the Apple Tree, +The Angel of the Waters offered all the Seas in fee. + But Adam would not take 'em, + Nor the ships he wouldn't make 'em, + Singing:--'Water, Earth and Air and Fire, + What more can mortal man desire?' + (The Apple Tree's in leaf.) + +As Adam lay a-dreaming beneath the Apple Tree, +The Angel of the Air he offered all the Air in fee. + But Adam did not crave it, + Nor the flight he wouldn't brave it, + Singing:--'Air and Water, Earth and Fire, + What more can mortal man desire?' + (The Apple Tree's in bloom.) + +As Adam lay a-dreaming beneath the Apple Tree, +The Angel of the Fire rose up and not a word said he, + But he wished a flame and made it, + And in Adam's heart he laid it, + Singing:--'Fire, Fire, burning Fire! + Stand up and reach your heart's desire!' + (The Apple Blossom's set.) + +As Adam was a-working outside of Eden-Wall, +He used the Earth, he used the Seas, he used the Air and all; + And out of black disaster + He arose to be the master + Of Earth and Water, Air and Fire, + But never reached his heart's desire! + (The Apple Tree's cut down!) + + + + +THE PRAYER + + +My Brother kneels, so saith Kabir, +To stone and brass in heathen-wise, +But in my brother's voice I hear +My own unanswered agonies. +His God is as his fates assign, +His prayer is all the world's--and mine. + + +_Printed by_ R. & R. 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