



Produced by Judith Boss





THE WRITINGS IN PROSE AND VERSE OF RUDYARD KIPLING

By Rudyard Kipling

VOLUME XI.

1889-1896





CONTENTS

Followed by first lines


BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS

1889-1891



TO WOLCOTT BALESTIER
  Beyond the path of the outmost sun through utter darkness hurled --


     BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS


To T. A.
  I have made for you a song,

DANNY DEEVER
  "What are the bugles blowin' for?" said Files-on-Parade.

TOMMY
  I went into a public-'ouse to get a pint o' beer,

"FUZZY-WUZZY"
  We've fought with many men acrost the seas,

SOLDIER, SOLDIER
  "Soldier, soldier come from the wars,

SCREW-GUNS
  Smokin' my pipe on the mountings, sniffin' the mornin' cool,

CELLS
  I've a head like a concertina:  I've a tongue like a button-stick:

GUNGA DIN
  You may talk o' gin and beer

OONTS
  Wot makes the soldier's 'eart to penk, wot makes 'im to perspire?

LOOT
  If you've ever stole a pheasant-egg be'ind the keeper's back,

"SNARLEYOW"
  This 'appened in a battle to a batt'ry of the corps,

THE WIDOW AT WINDSOR
  'Ave you 'eard o' the Widow at Windsor?

BELTS
  There was a row in Silver Street that's near to Dublin Quay,

THE YOUNG BRITISH SOLDIER
  When the 'arf-made recruity goes out to the East,

MANDALAY
  By the old Moulmein Pagoda, lookin' eastward to the sea,

TROOPIN'
  Troopin', troopin', troopin' to the sea,

THE WIDOW'S PARTY
  "Where have you been this while away?"

FORD O' KABUL RIVER
  Kabul town's by Kabul river,

GENTLEMEN-RANKERS
  To the legion of the lost ones, to the cohort of the damned,

ROUTE MARCHIN'
  We're marchin' on relief over Injia's sunny plains,

SHILLIN' A DAY
  My name is O'Kelly, I've heard the Revelly,



OTHER VERSES

THE BALLAD OF EAST AND WEST
  Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,

THE LAST SUTTEE
  Udai Chand lay sick to death,

THE BALLAD OF THE KING'S MERCY
  Abdhur Rahman, the Durani Chief, of him is the story told,

THE BALLAD OF THE KING'S JEST
  When spring-time flushes the desert grass,

WITH SCINDIA TO DELHI
  The wreath of banquet overnight lay withered on the neck,

THE BALLAD OF BOH DA THONE
  This is the ballad of Boh Da Thone,

THE LAMENT OF THE BORDER CATTLE THIEF
  O woe is me for the merry life,

THE RHYME OF THE THREE CAPTAINS
 ... At the close of a winter day,

THE BALLAD OF THE "CLAMPHERDOWN"
  It was our war-ship _Clampherdown_,

THE BALLAD OF THE "BOLIVAR"
  Seven men from all the world back to Docks again,

THE SACRIFICE OF ER-HEB
  Er-Heb beyond the Hills of Ao-Safai,

THE EXPLANATION
  Love and Death once ceased their strife,

THE GIFT OF THE SEA
  The dead child lay in the shroud,

EVARRA AND HIS GODS
  Read here:  This is the story of Evarra -- man --,

THE CONUNDRUM OF THE WORKSHOPS
  When the flush of a new-born sun fell first on Eden's green and gold,

THE LEGEND OF EVIL
  This is the sorrowful story,

THE ENGLISH FLAG
  Winds of the World, give answer!  They are whimpering to and fro,

"CLEARED"
  Help for a patriot distressed, a spotless spirit hurt,

AN IMPERIAL RESCRIPT
  Now this is the tale of the Council the German Kaiser decreed,

TOMLINSON
  Now Tomlinson gave up the ghost in his house in Berkeley Square,

L'ENVOI TO "LIFE'S HANDICAP"
  My new-cut ashlar takes the light,

L'ENVOI
  There's a whisper down the field where the year has shot her yield,


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[In India, the swastika is an ancient symbol of good fortune.
Kipling frequently used the swastika in this context.]



THE SEVEN SEAS
   1891-1896

DEDICATION
  The Cities are full of pride,


THE SEVEN SEAS


A SONG OF THE ENGLISH
  Fair is our lot -- O goodly is our heritage!

The Coastwise Lights
  Our brows are bound with spindrift and the weed is on our knees,

The Song of the Dead
  Hear now the Song of the Dead -- in the North by the torn berg-edges,

The Deep-Sea Cables
  The wrecks dissolve above us; their dust drops down from afar --,

The Song of the Sons
  One from the ends of the earth -- gifts at an open door --,

The Song of the Cities
  Royal and Dower-royal, I the Queen,

England's Answer
  Truly ye come of The Blood; slower to bless than to ban,

THE FIRST CHANTEY
  Mine was the woman to me, darkling I found her,

THE LAST CHANTEY
  Thus said The Lord in the Vault above the Cherubim,

THE MERCHANTMEN
  King Solomon drew merchantmen,

M'ANDREW'S HYMN
  Lord, Thou hast made this world below the shadow of a dream,

THE MIRACLES
  I sent a message to my dear,

THE NATIVE-BORN
  We've drunk to the Queen -- God bless her!

THE KING
  "Farewell, Romance!" the Cave-men said,

THE RHYME OF THE THREE SEALERS
  Away by the lands of the Japanee,

THE DERELICT
  I was the staunchest of our fleet,

THE ANSWER
  A Rose, in tatters, on the garden path,

THE SONG OF THE BANJO
  You couldn't pack a Broadwood half a mile,

THE LINER SHE'S A LADY
  The Liner she's a lady, an' she never looks nor 'eeds,

MULHOLLAND'S CONTRACT
  The fear was on the cattle, for the gale was on the sea,

ANCHOR SONG
  Heh!  Walk her round.  Heave, ah heave her short again!
          FROM "MANY INVENTIONS".

THE LOST LEGION
  There's a Legion that never was 'listed,

THE SEA-WIFE
  There dwells a wife by the Northern Gate,

HYMN BEFORE ACTION
  The earth is full of anger,

TO THE TRUE ROMANCE
  Thy face is far from this our war,
          FROM "MANY INVENTIONS".

THE FLOWERS
  Buy my English posies!

THE LAST RHYME OF TRUE THOMAS
  The king has called for priest and cup,

IN THE NEOLITHIC AGE
  In the Neolithic Age savage warfare did I wage,

THE STORY OF UNG
  Once, on a glittering ice-field, ages and ages ago,

THE THREE-DECKER
  Full thirty foot she towered from waterline to rail,

AN AMERICAN
  If the Led Striker call it a strike,

THE "MARY GLOSTER"
  I've paid for your sickest fancies; I've humoured your crackedest whim,

SESTINA OF THE TRAMP-ROYAL
  Speakin' in general, I 'ave tried 'em all,



BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS


"BACK TO THE ARMY AGAIN"
  I'm 'ere in a ticky ulster an' a broken billycock 'at,

"BIRDS OF PREY" MARCH
  March!  The mud is cakin' good about our trousies,

"SOLDIER AN' SAILOR TOO"
  As I was spitting into the Ditch aboard o' the _Crocodile_,

SAPPERS
  When the Waters were dried an' the Earth did appear,

THAT DAY
  It got beyond all orders an' it got beyond all 'ope,

"THE MEN THAT FOUGHT AT MINDEN"
  The men that fought at Minden, they was rookies in their time,

CHOLERA CAMP
  We've got the cholerer in camp -- it's worse than forty fights,

THE LADIES
  I've taken my fun where I've found it,

BILL 'AWKINS
  "'As anybody seen Bill 'Awkins?"

THE MOTHER-LODGE
  There was Rundle, Station Master,

"FOLLOW ME 'OME"
  There was no one like 'im, 'Orse or Foot,

THE SERGEANT'S WEDDIN'
  'E was warned agin 'er,

THE JACKET
  Through the Plagues of Egyp' we was chasin' Arabi,

THE 'EATHEN
  The 'eathen in 'is blindness bows down to wood an' stone,

THE SHUT-EYE SENTRY
  Sez the Junior Orderly Sergeant,

"MARY, PITY WOMEN!"
  You call yourself a man,

FOR TO ADMIRE
  The Injian Ocean sets an' smiles,

L'ENVOI
  When Earth's last picture is painted and the tubes are twisted and dried,





BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS AND OTHER VERSES

     1889-1891

TO WOLCOTT BALESTIER


  Beyond the path of the outmost sun through utter darkness hurled --
  Further than ever comet flared or vagrant star-dust swirled --
  Live such as fought and sailed and ruled and loved and made our world.

  They are purged of pride because they died, they know the worth of their bays,
  They sit at wine with the Maidens Nine and the Gods of the Elder Days,
  It is their will to serve or be still as fitteth our Father's praise.

  'Tis theirs to sweep through the ringing deep where Azrael's outposts are,
  Or buffet a path through the Pit's red wrath when God goes out to war,
  Or hang with the reckless Seraphim on the rein of a red-maned star.

  They take their mirth in the joy of the Earth --
            they dare not grieve for her pain --
  They know of toil and the end of toil, they know God's law is plain,
  So they whistle the