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Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling

The Craftsman

0NCE, after long—drawn revel at The Mermaid,
He to the overbearing Boanerges
Jonson, uttered (if half of it were liquor,
Blessed be the vintage!)
 
Saying how, at an alehouse under Cotswold,
He had made sure of his very Cleopatra,
Drunk with enormous, salvation—contemning
Love for a tinker.
 
How, while he hid from Sir Thomas’s keepers,
Crouched in a ditch and drenched.by the midnight
Dews, he had listened to gipsy Juliet
Rail at the dawning.
 
How at Bankside, a boy drowning kittens
Winced at the business; whereupon his sister
Lady Macbeth aged seven —thrust 'em under,
Sombrely scornful.
 
How on a Sabbath, hushed and compassionate
She being known since her birth to the townsfolk
Stratford dredged and delivered from Avon
Dripping Ophelia.
 
So, with a thin third finger marrying
Drop to wine—drop domed on the table,
Shakespeare opened his heart till the sunrise
Entered to hear him.
 
London waked and he, imperturbable,
Passed from waking to hurry after shadows...
Busied upon shows of no earthly importance?
Yes, but he knew it!

#EnglishWriters

Other works by Rudyard Kipling...
"The American Rebellion" (1776)

BEFORE 'TWAS NOT while England’s swor… Put half a world to flight, Nor while their new—built cities b… Secure behind her might;
The Ballad of the King's Jest

WHEN spring—time flushes the des… Our kafilas wind through the Khyb… Lean are the camels but fat the fr… Light are the purses but heavy the… As the snowbound trade of the Nor…
Mandalay

BY THE old Moulmein Pagoda, loo… There’s a Burma girl a—settin’, a… For the wind is in the palm—trees,… “Come you back, you British soldi… Come you back to Mandalay,
 1
Butterflies

EYES aloft, over dangerous place… The children follow the butterflie… And, in the sweat of their upturne… Slash with a net at the empty skie… So it goes they fall amid brambles…
Ubique

THERE is a word you often see, p… “You bike,” “you bykwee,” “ubbikwe… It serves ’Orse, Field, an’ Garr… An’ when you’ve found out all it m… Ubique means the long—range Krupp…
Hymn to Physical Pain

DREAD Mother of forgetfulness Who, when Thy reign begins, Wipest away the soul’s distress And memory of her sins. The trusty Worm that diest not —
The Birthright

THE MIRACLE of our land’s spe… And long received, none marvel whe… We have such wealth as Rome at he… Had not or (having) scattered not… Nor with such arrant prodigality,
The Moral

YOU mustn’t groom an Arab with a… You hadn’t ought to tension—spring… You couldn’t push a brumby fifty m… And drop him in a boiler—shed to c… I’ll sling you through six countie…
A Counting Out Song

WHAT is the song the children si… When doorway lilacs bloom in Spri… And the Schools are loosed, and t… That were deadly earnest when Ear… Hear them chattering, shrill and h…
The Expert

YOUTH that trafficked long with… And to second life returns, Squanders little time or breath On his fellow—man’s concerns. Earnèd peace is all he asks
Two Months

No hope, no change! The clouds ha… And through the cloud the sullen… Full on the bosom of the tortured… Till Night falls heavy as remembe… That will not suffer sleep or thou…
Cuckoo Song

TELL it to the locked—up trees, Cuckoo, bring your song here! Warrant, Act and Summons, please, For Spring to pass along here! Tell old Winter, if he doubt,
White Horses

WHERE run your colts at pasture? There hide your mares to breed? ’Mid bergs about the Ice—cap Or wove Sargasso weed; By chartless reef and channel,
A Pict Song

Rome never looks where she treads. Always her heavy hooves fall On our stomachs, our hearts or our… And Rome never heeds when we bawl… Her sentries pass on—that is all,
Contradictions

THE DROWSY carrier sways To the drowsy horses’ tramp. His axles winnow the sprays Of the hedge where the rabbit play… In the light of his single lamp.



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