Rudyard Kipling

“ We are surrendered to night and the sea—the gale and the tide behind!
At the bridge of the lower saltings the cattle gather and blare,
Roused by the feet of running men, dazed by the lantern glare.
Unbar and let them away for their lives—the levels drown as they stand,
Where the flood-wash forces the sluices aback and the ditches deliver inland.
Ninefold deep to the top of the dykes the galloping breakers stride,
And their overcarried spray is a sea—a sea on the landward side. ”

“ We were born to peace in the lee of the dykes, but the time of our peace is past.
Far off, the full tide clambers and slips, mouthing and testing all,
Nipping the flanks of the water-gates, baying along the wall;
Turning the shingle, returning the shingle, changing the set of the sand ...
We are too far from the beach, men say, to know how the outworks stand.
So we come down, uneasy, to look, uneasily pacing the beach.
These are the dykes our fathers made: we have never known a breach.
Time and again has the gale blown by and we were not afraid ”

“ What good thing shall I wish thee that I have not wished before?
‘Shall I give thee delight in dominion—mere pride of thy setting forth?
Nay, we be women together—we know what that lust is worth.
Peace in thy utmost borders, and strength on a road untrod? ”

“ Or any new compass wherewith new men adventure ’neath new skies.
We shall lift up the ropes that constrained our youth to bind on our children’s hands;
We shall call to the water below the bridges to return and replenish our lands;
We shall harness horses (Death’s own pale horses) and scholarly plough the sands.
We shall lie down in the eye of the sun for lack of a light on our way—
We shall rise up when the day is done and chirrup, ‘Behold, it is day!’
We shall abide till the battle is won ere we amble into the fray. ”

“ His Sea as she serves him or kills?
So and no otherwise—so and no otherwise hillmen desire their Hills.
Who hath desired the Sea? Her excellent loneliness rather
Than forecourts of kings, and her outermost pits than the streets where men gather
Inland, among dust, under trees—inland where the slayer may slay him—
Inland, out of reach of her arms, and the bosom whereon he must lay him—
His Sea at the first that betrayed—at the last that shall never betray him—
His Sea that his being fulfils?
So and no otherwise—so and no otherwise hillmen desire their Hills. ”

“ To force him discover his business by sea.
And when we have wakened the lust of a foe,
To draw him by flight toward our bullies we go,
Till, ’ware of strange smoke stealing nearer, he flies—
Or our bullies close in for to make him good prize. ”

“ Now our Young Men go to dance before the Trues!
Who shall meet them at those altars—who shall light them to that shrine?
Velvet-footed, who shall guide them to their goal?
Unto each the voice and vision: unto each his spoor and sign—
Lonely mountain in the Northland, misty sweat-bath ’neath the Line—
And to each a man that knows his naked soul! ”

“ Till we wake our Island-Devil—nowise cool for being curbed!
When the heir of all the ages ‘has the honour to remain,’
When he will not hear an insult, though men make it ne’er so plain,
When his lips are schooled to meekness, when his back is bowed to blows—
Well the keen aas-vogels know it—well the waiting jackal knows.
Build on the flanks of Etna where the sullen smoke-puffs float—
Or bathe in tropic waters where the lean fin dogs the boat—
Cock the gun that is not loaded, cook the frozen dynamite—
But oh, beware my country, when my country grows polite! ”

“ In extended observation of the ways and works of man,
From the Four-mile Radius roughly to the plains of Hindustan:
I have drunk with mixed assemblies, seen the racial ruction rise,
And the men of half creation damning half creation’s eyes. ”

“ These were the dykes our fathers made to our great profit and ease;
But the peace is gone and the profit is gone, and the old sure day withdrawn ...
That our own houses show as strange when we come back in the dawn! ”

“ And for one the mule-train coughing in the dust.
Who hath smelt wood-smoke at twilight? Who hath heard the birch-log burning?
Who is quick to read the noises of the night?
Let him follow with the others, for the Young Men’s feet are turning
To the camps of proved desire and known delight!
Let him go—go, etc.
I
Do you know the blackened timber—do you know that racing stream
With the raw, right-angled log-jam at the end;
And the bar of sun-warmed shingle where a man may bask and dream
To the click of shod canoe-poles round the bend? ”

“ Ye know who use the Crystal Ball
(To peer by stealth on Doom) ,
The Shade that, shaping first of all,
Prepares an empty room.
Then doth It pass
Like breath from glass,
But, on the extorted vision bowed intent,
No man considers why It came or went. ”

“ The moon-track a-quiver bewilders our eyes,
Where, linking and lifting, our sisters we hail
’Twixt wrench of cross-surges or plunge of head-gale.
As maidens awaiting the bride to come forth
Make play with light jestings and wit of no worth,
So, widdershins circling the bride-bed of death,
Each fleereth her neighbour and signeth and saith:—
‘What see ye? ”

“ As it was in ancient Suez or ’neath wilder, milder skies,
I ‘observe with apprehension’ when the racial ructions rise;
And with keener apprehension, if I read the times aright,
Hear the old casino order: ‘Watch your man, but be polite.
‘Keep your temper. Never answer (that was why they spat and swore) .
Don’t hit first, but move together (there’s no hurry) to the door.
Back to back, and facing outward while the linguist tells ’em how—
"Nous sommes allong à notre batteau, nous ne voulong pas un row."’
So the hard, pent rage ate inward, till some idiot went too far ... ”

“ Their smoke, or the cloud-rack outblown?
‘What chase ye? Their lights, or the Daystar low down?’
So, times past all number deceived by false shows,
Deceiving we cumber the road of our foes,
For this is our virtue: to track and betray;
Preparing great battles a sea’s width away.
Now peace is at end and our peoples take heart,
For the laws are clean gone that restrainèd our art ”

“ Yet instant to fore-shadowed need
The eternal balance swings;
That wingèd men the Fates may breed
So soon as Fate hath wings.
These shall possess
Our littleness,
And in the imperial task (as worthy) lay
Up our lives’ all to piece one giant day. ”

“ Only I cut on the timber, only I carved on the stone:
After me cometh a Builder. Tell him, I too have known!
SUSSEX81
God gave all men all earth to love,
But since our hearts are small,
Ordained for each one spot should prove
Beloved over all ”

“ Our loved Egyptian night?’
Take up the White Man’s burden—
Ye dare not stoop to less—
Nor call too loud on Freedom
To cloak your weariness;
By all ye cry or whisper,
By all ye leave or do,
The silent, sullen peoples
Shall weigh your Gods and you.
Take up the White Man’s burden—
Have done with childish days—
The lightly proffered laurel,
The easy, ungrudged praise.
Comes now, to search your manhood
Through all the thankless years,
Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgment of your peers!
PHARAOH AND THE SERGEANT98
‘... ”