Rudyard Kipling

Name: A Song of the English
Author: Rudyard Kipling

A Song of the English (1909)

Summary

“A Song of the English”, published in 1909, is a work by Rudyard Kipling. It explores elements such as dark, flout and bones.

Quotes from A Song of the English (Rudyard Kipling)

Rudyard Kipling, A Song of the English (1909)

“ Sons, I have borne many sons, but my dugs are not dry.
MY ARM IS NOTHING WEAK
MY STRENGTH IS NOT
GONE BY
ENGLAND'S ANSWER
Truly ye come of The Blood; slower to bless than to ban;
Little used to lie down at the bidding of any man.
Flesh of the flesh that I bred, bone of the bone that I bare;
Stark as your sons shall be—stern as your fathers were.
Deeper than speech our love, stronger than life our tether,
But we do not fall on the neck nor kiss when we come together.
My arm is nothing weak, my strength is not gone by;
Sons, I have borne many sons, but my dugs are not dry. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Rudyard Kipling, A Song of the English (1909)

“ Till the Soul that is not man's soul was lent as to lead.
As the deer breaks—as the steer breaks—from the herd where they graze,
In the faith of little children we went on our ways.
Then the wood failed—then the food failed—then the last water dried
In the faith of little children we lay down and died.
On the sand-drift—on the veldt-side—in the fern-scrub we lay.
That our sons might follow after by the bones on the way. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Rudyard Kipling, A Song of the English

“ WE THAT WERE BRED OVERSEAS. Those that have stayed at thy knees, Mother, go call them in— We that were bred overseas wait and would speak with our kin. Not in the dark do we fight—haggle and flout and gibe; Selling our love for a price, loaning our hearts for a bribe. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Rudyard Kipling, A Song of the English (1909)

“ Greeting! Nor fear nor favour won us place,
⁠Got between greed of gold and dread of drouth,
Loud-voiced and reckless as the wild tide-race
⁠That whips our harbour-mouth!
SYDNEY
Greeting! My birth-stain have I turned to good
⁠Forcing strong wills perverse to steadfastness;
The first flush of the tropics in my blood,
⁠And at my feet Success!
BRISBANE
The northern stirp beneath the southern skies—
⁠I build a Nation for an Empire's need,
Suffer a little, and my land shall rise,
⁠Queen over lands indeed!
HOBART
Man's love first found me ”

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Source: Wikisource

Rudyard Kipling, A Song of the English (1909)

“ LEVEL FLOORS
THE COASTWISE LIGHTS
OF ENGLAND
THE COASTWISE LIGHTS
Our brows are bound with spindrift and the weed is on our knees;
Our loins are battered 'neath us by the swinging, smoking seas. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Rudyard Kipling, A Song of the English

“ By the bones about the wayside ye shall come to your own!
FOLLOW AFTER. Follow after—follow after—for the harvest is sown: By the bones about the wayside ye shall come to your own! When Drake went down to the Horn
And England was crowned thereby,
’Twixt seas unsailed and shores unhailed
Our Lodge—our Lodge was born
(And England was crowned thereby!)
Which never shall close again
By day nor yet by night,
While man shall take his life to stake
At risk of shoal or main
(By day nor yet by night) ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Rudyard Kipling, A Song of the English (1909)

“ Down to the dark, to the utter dark, where the blind white sea-snakes are.
There is no sound, no echo of sound, in the deserts of the deep,
Or the great grey level plains of ooze where the shell-burred cables creep.
Here in the womb of the world—here on the tie-ribs of earth
Words, and the words of men, flicker and flutter and beat—
Warning, sorrow and gain, salutation and mirth—
For a Power troubles the Still that has neither voice nor feet.
They have wakened the timeless Things; they have killed their father Time ”

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Source: Wikisource

Rudyard Kipling, A Song of the English (1909)

“ Of your children in their bondage shall He ask them treble-tale!
Keep ye the Law—be swift in all obedience—
Clear the land of evil, drive the road and bridge the ford.
⁠Make ye sure to each his own
⁠That he reap where he hath sown;
By the peace among Our peoples let men know we serve the Lord!
Hear now a song—a song of broken interludes—
A song of little cunning; of a singer nothing worth.
⁠Through the naked words and mean
⁠May ye see the truth between
As the singer knew and touched it in the ends of all the Earth! ”

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Source: Wikisource

Rudyard Kipling, A Song of the English (1909)

“ Earnest for leave to live and labour well,
⁠God flung me peace and ease.
AUCKLAND
Last, loneliest, loveliest, exquisite, apart—
⁠On us, on us the unswerving season smiles,
Who wonder 'mid our fern why men depart
⁠To seek the Happy Isles! ”

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Source: Wikisource

Rudyard Kipling, A Song of the English (1909)

“ SHE CALLS US, STILL UNFED
We have fed our sea for a thousand years,
⁠And she calls us, still unfed,
Though there's never a wave of all her waves
⁠But marks our English dead. ”

Rudyard Kipling

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Quotes from A Song of the English (Rudyard Kipling)

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