The Complete Poetical Works of Rudyard Kipling - Rudyard Kipling

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the blaze

       Of old days,

       From the sickness of the noontide, from the heat,

       Beat retreat;

       For the country from Peshawur to Ceylon

       Was their own.

      But the Merchant risked the perils of the Plain

       For his gain.

      Now the resting-place of Charnock, 'neath the palms,

       Asks an alms,

       And the burden of its lamentation is,

       Briefly, this:

       "Because for certain months, we boil and stew,

       So should you.

      Cast the Viceroy and his Council, to perspire

       In our fire!"

       And for answer to the argument, in vain

       We explain

       That an amateur Saint Lawrence cannot fry:

       "All must fry!"

       That the Merchant risks the perils of the Plain

       For gain.

      Nor can Rulers rule a house that men grow rich in,

       From its kitchen.

      Let the Babu drop inflammatory hints

       In his prints;

       And mature—consistent soul—his plan for stealing

       To Darjeeling:

       Let the Merchant seek, who makes his silver pile,

       England's isle;

       Let the City Charnock pitched on—evil day!

       Go Her way.

      Though the argosies of Asia at Her doors

       Heap their stores,

       Though Her enterprise and energy secure

       Income sure,

       Though "out-station orders punctually obeyed"

       Swell Her trade—

       Still, for rule, administration, and the rest,

       Simla's best.

      Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads

       Table of Contents

       The Ballad of East and West

       The Last Suttee

       The Ballad of the King's Mercy

       The Ballad of the King's Jest

       The Ballad of Boh Da Thone

       The Lament of the Border Cattle Thief

       The Rhyme of the Three Captains

       The Ballad of the Clampherdown

       The Ballad of the "Bolivar"

       The English Flag

       An Imperial Rescript

       Tomlinson

       Barrack-Room Ballads

       Tommy

       Soldier, Soldier

       Screw-Guns

       Gunga Din

       Loot

       'Snarleyow'

       The Widow at Windsor

       Belts

       The Young British Soldier

       Mandalay

       Ford O' Kabul River

       Route Marchin'

      The Ballad of East and West

       Table of Contents

      Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall

       meet,

       Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great Judgment

       Seat;

       But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,

       When two strong men stand face to face,

       tho' they come from the ends of the earth!

      Kamal is out with twenty men to raise the Border-side,

       And he has lifted the Colonel's mare that is the Colonel's pride:

       He has lifted her out of the stable-door between the dawn and the day,

       And turned the calkins upon her feet, and ridden her far away.

      Then up and spoke the Colonel's son that led a troop of the Guides:

       "Is there never a man of all my men can say where Kamal hides?"

       Then up and spoke Mahommed Khan, the son of the Ressaldar:

       "If ye know the track of the morning-mist, ye know where his pickets are.

      "At dusk he harries the Abazai—at dawn he is into Bonair,

       But he must go by Fort Bukloh to his own place to fare,

       So if ye gallop to Fort Bukloh as fast as a bird can fly,

       By the favour of God ye may cut him off ere he win to the Tongue of Jagai.

      "But if he be past the Tongue of Jagai, right swiftly turn ye then,

       For the length and the breadth of that grisly plain is sown with Kamal's men.

       There is rock to the left, and rock to the right, and low lean thorn between,

      

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