Complete Works of Rudyard Kipling (Illustrated) (1027 page)

Kabul town was ours to take —
 Blow the trumpet, draw the sword —
I’d ha’ left it for ‘is sake —
 ‘Im that left me by the ford.
    Ford, ford, ford o’ Kabul river,
     Ford o’ Kabul river in the dark!
    It’s none so bloomin’ dry there; ain’t you never comin’ nigh there,
     ‘Cross the ford o’ Kabul river in the dark?

Kabul town’ll go to hell —
 Blow the trumpet, draw the sword —
‘Fore I see him ‘live an’ well —
 ‘Im the best beside the ford.
    Ford, ford, ford o’ Kabul river,
     Ford o’ Kabul river in the dark!
    Gawd ‘elp ‘em if they blunder, for their boots’ll pull ‘em under,
     By the ford o’ Kabul river in the dark.

Turn your ‘orse from Kabul town —
 Blow the trumpet, draw the sword —
‘Im an’ ‘arf my troop is down,
 Down an’ drownded by the ford.
    Ford, ford, ford o’ Kabul river,
     Ford o’ Kabul river in the dark!
    There’s the river low an’ fallin’, but it ain’t no use o’ callin’
     ‘Cross the ford o’ Kabul river in the dark.

For To Admire

The Injian Ocean sets an’ smiles
 So sof’, so bright, so bloomin’ blue;
There aren’t a wave for miles an’ miles
 Excep’ the jiggle from the screw.
The ship is swep’, the day is done,
 The bugle’s gone for smoke and play;
An’ black ag’in the settin’ sun
 The Lascar sings, “
Hum deckty hai!
”                 [“I’m looking out.”]

For to admire an’ for to see,
 For to be’old this world so wide —
It never done no good to me,
 But I can’t drop it if I tried!

I see the sergeants pitchin’ quoits,
 I ‘ear the women laugh an’ talk,
I spy upon the quarter-deck
 The orficers an’ lydies walk.
I thinks about the things that was,
 An’ leans an’ looks acrost the sea,
Till, spite of all the crowded ship
 There’s no one lef’ alive but me.

The things that was which I ‘ave seen,
 In barrick, camp, an’ action too,
I tells them over by myself,
 An’ sometimes wonders if they’re true;
For they was odd — most awful odd —
 But all the same, now they are o’er,
There must be ‘eaps o’ plenty such,
 An’ if I wait I’ll see some more.

Oh, I ‘ave come upon the books,
 An’ frequent broke a barrick-rule,
An’ stood beside an’ watched myself
 Be’avin’ like a bloomin’ fool.
I paid my price for findin’ out,
 Nor never grutched the price I paid,
But sat in Clink without my boots,
 Admirin’ ‘ow the world was made.

Be’old a crowd upon the beam,
 An’ ‘umped above the sea appears
Old Aden, like a barrick-stove
 That no one’s lit for years an’ years!
I passed by that when I began,
 An’ I go ‘ome the road I came,
A time-expired soldier-man
 With six years’ service to ‘is name.

My girl she said, “Oh, stay with me!”
 My mother ‘eld me to ‘er breast.
They’ve never written none, an’ so
 They must ‘ave gone with all the rest —
With all the rest which I ‘ave seen
 An’ found an’ known an’ met along.
I cannot say the things I feel,
 And so I sing my evenin’ song:

For to admire an’ for to see,
 For to be’old this world so wide —
It never done no good to me,
 But I can’t drop it if I tried!

The Four Angels

“With the Night Mail” — Actions and Reactions
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;
     Till out of black disaster
     He arose to be a master
      Of Earth and Water, Air and Fire,
      But never reached his heart’s desire!
        (The Apple Tree’s cut down!)

Four-Feet

“THE WOMAN IN HIS LIFE”
I have done mostly what most men do,
And pushed it out of my mind;
But I can’t forget, if I wanted to,
Four-Feet trotting behind.

Day after day, the whole day through —
Wherever my road inclined —
Four-feet said, “I am coming with you!”
And trotted along behind.

Now I must go by some other round, —
Which I shall never find —
Somewhere that does not carry the sound
Of Four-Feet trotting behind.

The Four Points

Thomas Tusser
 — The Muse Among the Motors (1900-1930)
Ere stopping or turning, to put foorth a hande
Is a charm that thy daies may be long in the land.

Though seventy-times-seven thee Fortune befriend,
O’ertaking at corners is Death in the end.

Sith main-roads for side-roads care nothing, have care
Both to slow and to blow when thou enterest there.

Drink as thou canst hold it, but
after
is best;
For Drink with men’s Driving makes Crowners to Quest.

Fox-Hunting

1933
THE FOX MEDITATES
When Samson set my brush afire
       To spoil the Timnites barley,
I made my point for Leicestershire
       And left Philistia early.
Through Gath and Rankesborough Gorse I fled,
       And took the Coplow Road, sir!
And was a Gentleman in Red
       When all the Quorn wore woad, sir!

When Rome lay massed on Hadrian’s Wall,
       And nothing much was doing,
Her bored Centurions heard my call
       O’ nights when I went wooing.
They raised a pack-they ran it well
       (For I was there to run ‘em)
From Aesica to Carter Fell,
       And down North Tyne to Hunnum.

When William, landed hot for blood,
       And Harold’s hosts were smitten,
I lay at earth in Battle Wood
       While Domesday Book was written.
Whatever harm he did to man,
        I owe him pure affection;
For in his righteous reign began
        The first of Game Protection.

When Charles, my namesake, lost his mask,
       And Oliver dropped his’n,
I found those Northern Squires a task,
       To keep ‘em out of prison.
In boots as big as milking-pails,
       With holsters on the pommel,
They chevied me across the Dales
       Instead of fighting Cromwell.

When thrifty Walpole took the helm,
       And hedging came in fashion,
The March of Progress gave my realm
       Enclosure and Plantation.
‘Twas then, to soothe their discontent,
       I showed each pounded Master,
However fast the Commons went,
       I went a little faster!

When Pigg and Jorrocks held the stage,
       And Steam had linked the Shires,
I broke the staid Victorian age
       To posts, and rails, and wires.
Then fifty mile was none too far
       To go by train to cover,
Till some dam’ sutler pupped a car,
       And decent sport was over!

When men grew shy of hunting stag,
       For fear the Law might try ‘em,
The Car put up an average bag
       Of twenty dead per diem.
Then every road was made a rink
        For Coroners to sit on;
And so began, in skid and stink,
        The real blood-sport of Britain!

France

1913
Broke to every known mischance, lifted over all
By the light sane joy of life, the buckler of the Gaul,
Furious in luxury, merciless in toil,
Terrible with strength that draws from her tireless soil;
Strictest judge of her own worth, gentlest of man’s mind,
First to follow Truth and last to leave old Truths behind-
France beloved of every soul that loves its fellow-kind!

Ere our birth (rememberest thou?) side by side we lay
Fretting in the womb of Rome to begin our fray.
Ere men knew our tongues apart, our one task was known-
Each to mould the other’s fate as he wrought his own.
To this end we stirred mankind till all Earth was ours,
Till our world-end strifes begat wayside Thrones and Powers-
Puppets that we made or broke to bar the other’s path-
Necessary, outpost-folk, hirelings of our wrath.
To this end we stormed the seas, tack for tack, and burst
Through the doorways of new worlds, doubtful which was first,
Hand on hilt (rememberest thou?) ready for the blow-
Sure, whatever else we met, we should meet our foe.
Spurred or balked at every stride by the other’s strength,
So we rode the ages down and every ocean’s length!

Where did you refrain from us or we refrain from you?
Ask the wave that has not watched war between us two?
Others held us for a while, but with weaker charms,
These we quitted at the call for each other’s arms.
Eager toward the known delight, equally we strove-
Each the other’s mystery, terror, need, and love.
To each other’s open court with our proofs we came.
Where could we find honour else, or men to test our claim!
From each other’s throat we wrenched-valour’s last reward -
That extorted word of praise gasped ‘twixt lunge and guard,
In each other’s cup we poured mingled blood and tears,
Brutal joys, unmeasured hopes, intolerable fears-
All that soiled or salted life for a thousand years.
Proved beyond the need of proof, matched in every clime,
O Companion, we have lived greatly through all time!

Yoked in knowledge and remorse, now we come to rest,
Laughing at old villainies that Time has turned to jest;
Pardoning old necessities no pardon can efface-
That undying sin we shared in Rouen market-place.
Now we watch the new years shape, wondering if they hold
Fiercer lightnings in their heart than we launched of old.
Now we hear new voices rise, question, boast or gird,
As we raged (rememberest thou?) when our crowds were stirred.
Now we count new keels afloat, and new hosts on land,
Massed like ours (rememberest thou?) when our strokes were planned.
We were schooled for dear life’s sake, to know each other’s blade.
What can Blood and Iron make more than we have made?
We have learned by keenest use to know each other’s mind,
What shall Blood and Iron loose that we cannot bind?
We who swept each other’s coast, sacked each other’s home,
Since the sword of Brennus clashed on the scales at Rome,
Listen, count and close again, wheeling girth to girth,
In the linked and steadfast guard set for peace on earth!

Broke to every known mischance, lifted over all
By the light sane joy of life, the buckler of the Gaul;
Furious in luxury, merciless in toil,
Terrible with strength renewed from a tireless soil;
Strictest judge of her own worth, gentlest of man’s mind,
First to face the Truth and last to leave old Truths behind-
France, beloved of every soul that loves or serves its kind!

Frankie’s Trade

“Simple Simon” — Rewards and Fairies
  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’I.”
     
(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!)