Rudyard Kipling

“ And the faces of the Sisters and the glory in their eyes?
(Bold behind the battle, in the open camp all-hallowed,
Patient, wise, and mirthful in the ringed and reeking town,
These endured unresting till they rested from their labours—
Little wasted bodies, ah, so light to lower down!)
Yet their graves are scattered and their names are clean forgotten,
Earth shall not remember, but the Waiting Angel knows
Them that died at Uitvlugt when the plague was on the city—
Her that fell at Simon’s Town in service on our foes. ”

“ Let us admit it fairly, as a business people should,
We have had no end of a lesson: it will do us no end of good. ”

“ I do not love my Empire’s foes,
Nor call ’em angels; still,
What is the sense of ’atin’ those
’Oom you are paid to kill?
So, barrin’ all that foreign lot
Which only joined for spite,
Myself, I’d just as soon as not
Respect the man I fight.
Ah there, Piet!—’is trousies to ’is knees,
’Is coat-tails lyin’ level in the bullet-sprinkled breeze;
’E does not lose ’is rifle an’ ’e does not lose ’is seat,
I’ve known a lot o’ people ride a dam’ sight worse than Piet! ”

“ Give no ear to bondsmen bidding us endure,
Whining ‘He is weak and far’; crying ‘Time shall cure.’
(Time himself is witness, till the battle joins,
Deeper strikes the rottenness in the people’s loins.) ”

“ And Dives lent according to their need.
Then Satan said to Dives:—’Return again with me,
‘Who hast broken His Commandment in the day He set thee free,
‘Who grindest for thy greed,
‘Man’s belly-pinch and need;
‘And the blood of Man to filthy usury!’
Then softly answered Dives where the money-changers sit:—
‘My refuge is Our Master, O My Master in the Pit;
‘But behold all Earth is laid
‘In the peace which I have made,
‘And behold I wait on thee to trouble it!’
Then angrily turned Satan, and about the Seas he fled,
To shake the new-sown peoples with insult, doubt, and dread ”

“ Ubique means Blue Fuse, an’ make the ’ole to sink the trail.
Ubique means stand up an’ take the Mauser’s ’alf-mile ’ail.
Ubique means the crazy team not God nor man can ’old.
Ubique means that ’orse’s scream which turns your innards cold! ”

“ Ubique means that warnin’ grunt the perished linesman knows,
When o’er ’is strung an’ sufferin’ front the shrapnel sprays ’is foes;
An’ as their firin’ dies away the ’usky whisper runs
From lips that ’aven’t drunk all day: ‘The Guns! ”

“ Remarkable close to my ’orse’s neck to let the shots go by.
We used to fancy it risky once
(Called it a reconnaissance once) ,
Under the charge of an orf’cer once,
But now we are M. I.
That is what we are known as—that is the song you must say
When you want men to be Mausered at one and a penny a day;
We are no five-bob colonials—we are the ’omemade supply,
Ask for the London Ikonas! Ring up the —— M. I.!
I wish myself could talk to myself as I left ’im a year ago;
I could tell ’im a lot that would save ’im a lot on the things that ’e ought to know! ”

“ Ubique means ‘They’ve caught De Wet, an’ now we shan’t be long.’
Ubique means ‘I much regret, the beggar’s goin’ strong!’
Ubique means the tearin’ drift where, breech-blocks jammed with mud,
The khaki muzzles duck an’ lift across the khaki flood.
Ubique means the dancing plain that changes rocks to Boers.
Ubique means mirage again an’ shellin’ all outdoors.
Ubique means ‘Entrain at once for Grootdefeatfontein’!
Ubique means ‘Off-load your guns’—at midnight in the rain!
Ubique means ‘More mounted men. Return all guns to store.’
Ubique means the R.A.M.R. Infantillery Corps! ”

“ For heathen heart that puts her trust
In reeking tube and iron shard,
All valiant dust that builds on dust,
And guarding, calls not Thee to guard,
For frantic boast and foolish word—
Thy Mercy on Thy People, Lord! ”

“ An’ gifts an’ loans as well,
’E’s gettin’ ’alf the Earth, because
’E didn’t give us ’Ell!
Ah there, Piet! with your brand-new English plough,
Your gratis tents an’ cattle, an’ your most ungrateful frow.
You’ve made the British taxpayer rebuild your country-seat—
I’ve known some pet battalions charge a dam’ sight less than Piet.
‘WILFUL-MISSING’110
There is a world outside the one you know,
To which for curiousness ’Ell can’t compare—
It is the place where ‘wilful-missings’ go,
As we can testify, for we are there. ”

“ It was our fault, and our very great fault—and now we must turn it to use;
We have forty million reasons for failure, but not a single excuse! ”

“ What man can size or weigh another’s woe?
There are some things too bitter ’ard to bear.
Suffice it we ’ave finished—Domino!
As we can testify, for we are there,
In the side-world where ‘wilful-missings’ go.
UBIQUE113
There is a word you often see, pronounce it as you may—
‘You bike,’ ‘you bykwe,’ ‘ubbikwe’—alludin’ to R.A.
It serves ’Orse, Field, an’ Garrison as motto for a crest,
An’ when you’ve found out all it means I’ll tell you ’alf the rest.
Ubique means the long-range Krupp be’ind the low-range ’ill—
Ubique means you’ll pick it up an’ while you do stand still. ”

“ An’ ’e might ’ave wasted ’alf a dozen men;
So ’e ordered ’im to stop ’is operations round the kopjes,
An’ ’e told ’im off before the Staff at ten!
And it all goes into the laundry,
But it never comes out in the wash,
’Ow we’re sugared about by the old men
(’Eavy-sterned amateur old men!)
That ’amper an’ ’inder an’ scold men
For fear o’ Stellenbosh!
The General ’ad ‘produced a great effect,’
The General ’ad the country cleared—almost;
The General ‘’ad no reason to expect,’
And the Boers ’ad us bloomin’ well on toast! ”

“ God of our fathers, known of old,
Lord of our far-flung battle-line,
Beneath whose awful Hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine—
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget! ”

“ All the ’60—’70—’80—’90 files
(The open-minded, opportunist files—
The easy ‘O King, live for ever’ files) .
It is good to read a little in the files;
’Tis a sure and sovereign balm
Unto philosophic calm,
Yea, and philosophic doubt when Life beguiles.
When you know Success is Greatness,
When you marvel at your lateness
In apprehending facts so plain to Smiles
(Self-helpful, wholly strenuous Samuel Smiles) .
When your Imp of Blind Desire
Bids you set the Thames afire,
You’ll remember men have done so—in the files. ”

“ For ’e might ’ave gone an’ sprayed ’em with a pompom,
Or ’e might ’ave slung a squadron out to see—
But ’e wasn’t takin’ chances in them ’igh an’ ’ostile kranzes—
He was markin’ time to earn a K.C.B.
The General got ’is decorations thick
(The men that backed ’is lies could not complain) ,
The Staff ’ad D.S.O.’s till we was sick,
An’ the soldier—’ad the work to do again!
For ’e might ’ave known the District was a ’otbed,
Instead of ’andin’ over, upside-down,
To a man ’oo ’ad to fight ’alf a year to put it right,
While the General went an’ slandered ’im in town! ”

“ Ah there, Piet!—you’ve sold me many a pup,
When week on week alternate it was you an’ me ‘’ands up!’
But though I never made you walk man-naked in the ’eat,
I’ve known a lot of fellows stalk a dam’ sight worse than Piet.
From Plewman’s to Marabastad,
From Ookiep to De Aar,
Me an’ my trusty friend ’ave ’ad,
As you might say, a war ”