Tag: Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling: The Choice

The American Spirit speaks:

TO the Judge of Right and Wrong
With Whom fulfilment lies
Our purpose and our power belong,
Our faith and sacrifice,

Let Freedom’s Land rejoice!
Our ancient bonds are riven;
Once more to us the eternal choice
Of Good or Ill is given.

Not at a little cost,
Hardly by prayer or tears,
Shall we recover the road we lost
In the drugged and doubting years.

But, after the fires and the wrath,
But, after searching and pain,
His Mercy opens us a path
To live with ourselves again.

In the Gates of Death rejoice!
We see and hold the good—
Bear witness, Earth, we have made our choice
With Freedom’s brotherhood!

Then praise the Lord Most High
Whose Strength hath saved us whole,
Who bade us choose that the Flesh should die
And not the living Soul!

To the God in Man displayed—
Wheree’er we see that Birth,
Be love and understanding paid
As never yet on earth!

To the Spirit that moves in Man,
On Whom all worlds depend,
Be Glory since our world began
And service to the end!

***

Notes on “The Choice”

http://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/rg_choice1.htm

***

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Rudyard Kipling: “For All We Have And Are”

1914
For all we have and are,
For all our children’s fate,
Stand up and take the war.
The Hun is at the gate!
Our world has passed away,
In wantonness o’erthrown.
There is nothing left to-day
But steel and fire and stone!
     Though all we knew depart,
     The old Commandments stand:—
     “In courage kept your heart,
     In strength lift up your hand.”
Once more we hear the word
That sickened earth of old:—
“No law except the Sword
Unsheathed and uncontrolled.”
Once more it knits mankind,
Once more the nations go
To meet and break and bind
A crazed and driven foe.
Comfort, content, delight,
The ages’ slow-bought gain,
They shrivelled in a night.
Only ourselves remain
To face the naked days
In silent fortitude,
Through perils and dismays
Renewed and re-renewed.
     Though all we made depart,
     The old Commandments stand:—
     “In patience keep your heart,
     In strength lift up your hand.”
No easy hope or lies
Shall bring us to our goal,
But iron sacrifice
Of body, will, and soul.
There is but one task for all—
One life for each to give.
What stands if Freedom fall?
Who dies if England live?
***

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Rudyard Kipling: Mine Sweepers

Dawn off the Foreland--the young flood making
    Jumbled and short and steep--
Black in the hollows and bright where it's breaking--
   Awkward water to sweep.
   "Mines reported in the fairway,
   "Warn all traffic and detain.
"'Sent  up  Unity,  Cralibel,  Assyrian,  Stormcock,  and Golden
        Gain."

 Noon off the Foreland--the first ebb making
   Lumpy and strong in the bight.
 Boom after boom, and the golf-hut shaking
   And the jackdaws wild with fright!
   "Mines located in the fairway,
   "Boats now working up the chain,
 "Sweepers--Unity,  Claribel,  Assyrian,  Stormcock,  and Golden
         Gain."

Dusk off the Foreland--the last light going
  And the traffic crowding through,
And five damned trawlers with their syreens blowing
   Heading the whole review!
   "Sweep completed in the fairway.
   "No more mines remain.
"'Sent back  Unity, Claribel, Assyrian, Stormcock, and Golden
        Gain."

***

Rudyard Kipling: A Dead Statesman

I could not dig; I dared not rob:
Therefore I lied to please the mob.
Now all my lies are proved untrue
And I must face the men I slew.
What tale shall serve me here among
Mine angry and defrauded young?

***

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