Rudyard Kipling

The Totem

"The Tie"
Limits and Renewals

ERE the mother’s milk had dried
On my lips, the Brethren came—
Tore me from my nurse’s side,
And bestowed on me a name
 
Infamously overtrue—
Such as ‘Bunny,’ ‘Stinker,’ ‘Podge’;—
But, whatever I should do,
Mine for ever in the Lodge.
 
Then they taught with palm and toe—
Then I learned with yelps and tears—
All the Armoured Man should know
Through his Seven Secret Years . . .
 
Last, oppressing as oppressed,
I was loosed to go my ways
With a Totem on my breast
Governing my nights and days—
 
Ancient and unbribeable,
By the virtue of its Name—
Which, however oft I fell
Lashed me back into The Game.
 
And the World, that never knew,
Saw no more beneath my chin
Than a patch of rainbow—hue,
Mixed as Life and crude as Sin.
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