RUDYARD KIPLING
BEST OF HIS POEMS
This where you will find some of Rudyard KIpling's best pieces of poetry selected daily to be placed on the site.
Cities and Thrones and Powers
Cities and Thrones and Powers, Stand in Time's eye, Almost as long as flowers, Which daily die: But, as new buds put forth To glad new men, Out of the spent and unconsidered Earth, The Cities rise again.
This season's Daffodil, She never hears, What change, what chance, what chill, Cut down last year's; But with bold countenance, And knowledge small, Esteems her seven days' continuance, To be perpetual.
So Time that is o'er -kind, To all that be, Ordains us e'en as blind, As bold as she: That in our very death, And burial sure, Shadow to shadow, well persuaded, saith, "See how our works endure!"
By the Hoof of the Wild Goat
By the Hoof of the Wild Goat uptossed From the cliff where she lay in the Sun Fell the Stone To the Tarn where the daylight is lost, So she fell from the light of the Sun And alone!
Now the fall was ordained from the first With the Goat and the Cliff and the Tarn, But the Stone Knows only her life is accursed As she sinks from the light of the Sun And alone!
Oh Thou Who hast builded the World, Oh Thou Who hast lighted the Sun, Oh Thou Who hast darkened the Tarn, Judge Thou The sin of the Stone that was hurled By the goat from the light of the Sun, As she sinks in the mire of the Tarn, Even now--even now--even now!
A Smugglers Song
If you wake at midnight, and hear a horse's feet, Don't go drawing back the blind, or looking in the street.
Them that ask no questions isn't told a lie.
Watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by! Five and twenty ponies, Trotting through the dark -- Brandy for the Parson, 'Baccy for the Clerk; Laces for a lady, letters for a spy, And watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by!
Running round the woodlump if you chance to find Little barrels, roped and tarred, all full of brandy-wine, Don't you shout to come and look, nor use 'em for your play.
Put the brishwood back again -- and they'll be gone next day!
If you see the stable-door setting open wide; If you see a tired horse lying down inside; If your mother mends a coat cut about and tore; If the lining's wet and warm -- don't you ask no more!
If you meet King George's men, dressed in blue and red, You be carefull what you say, and mindful what is said.
If they call you "pretty maid," and chuck you 'neath the chin, Don't you tell where no one is, nor yet where no one's been!
Knocks and footsteps round the house -- whistles after dark -- You've no call for running out till the house-dogs bark.
Trusty's here, and Pincher's here, and see how dumb they lie -- They don't fret to follow when the Gentlemen go by!
If you do as you've been told, 'likely there's a chance, You'll be given a dainty doll, all the way from France, With a cap of Valenciennes, and a velvet hood -- A present from the Gentlemen, along o' being good! Five and twenty ponies, Trotting through the dark -- Brandy for the Parson, 'Baccy for the Clerk; Them that asks no questions isn't told a lie -- Watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen bo by!