Rudyard Kipling

“ Now, a beast with a mouth like a brickbat can't turn to a turn of the wrist—
And the Waler took furlongs to turn in; and the rest of the run Rugby missed.
So we shed him and spread him and left him, after manifold jinkings and chouses,
And the issue was narrowed to this: "Ride, boys, for the love of your Houses!"
Dull-white on the slate of his hide ran a spear-scar from shoulder to chine:
And a pig that is marked by the spear is seldom the sweetest of swine. ”

“ He plucks the grass-tufts aimlessly, and works
Palm within palm, then for a moment's space
Breaks off rough bark and throws it on the ground.
He hears me not. Oh! would the dawn delay,
So I might rise and perfect that I make,
Or rise and build again. Alas! the light
Is flaming forth to mock me. See, he sits
Helpless, uprooting grass. While all the world
Is thick with life renewed that fills my ears,
My last and greatest work is mockery.
Depart, O Ape! Depart and leave me foiled.
Conventionality
Passion and Fire—bah! ”

“ Placetne, Domini?—'neath India's sky
I wait your answer, laymen and divines;
And, as of old, upon your table I
"Show up my lines."
The Song of the Exiles
(From the United Services College "Chronicle," October 15, 1883.)
That long white Barrack by the Sea
Stares blankly seaward still,
But other grimy paws make free
With pignuts on "The Hill."
Fresh faces in the Gym appear,
New knives cut other names;
Fresh sinners carry on, I fear,
Our very same old games. ”

“ So we drank in the shade of the lunch-tent to the Barrack that stands by the Sea—
We drank to the health of its fellows—to all who have been and may be.
And Cheltenham joined in the chorus and Rugby re-echoed the cheer
On the day that we rode for the College, and won you the Boar of the Year!
The Battle of Assye
(From the United Services College "Chronicle," July 2, 1886.)
Save where our huge sea-castles from afar,
Beat down, in scorn, some weak Egyptian wall,
We are too slothful to give heed to war. ”

“ Contemptuously. Lovers' offerings then,
Much kissed and withered. Staid and sober age
In snug, suburban villas rears them last:
The world at large is dowered with their thorns!
The Lesson
We two learned the lesson together,
The oldest of all, yet so new
To myself, and I'm wondering whether
It was utterly novel to you?
The pages—you seemed to have known them,
The pictures that changed 'neath our eyes;
Alas! by what hand were you shown them,
That I find you so womanly wise?
Is it strange that my hand on your shoulder
In the dusk of the day should be placed? ”

“ The Devil each night of the seven days of creation works in emulation of the Creator and produces baneful things—fogs, poisonous plants, venomous creatures, etc.—and at last tries to make a man in imitation of Adam. He fails, recognizes his failure, and is obliged to own that his power cannot rival that of the Creator, and that evil is less powerful than good.
Lo! what is this I make! Are these his limbs,
Bent inward, tottering 'neath the body's weight? ”