Poems

Poems List

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Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

The Idiot Boy

The Idiot Boy
Wordsworth
He wandered down the moutain grade
Beyond the speed assigned--
A youth whom Justice often stayed
And generally…

381
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

The Hyaenas

The Hyaenas
After the burial-parties leave
And the baffled kites have fled;
The wise hyaenas come out at eve
To take account of our dead.

376
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

The Heritage

The Heritage
Our Fathers in a wondrous age,
Ere yet the Earth was small,
Ensured to us a heritage,
And doubted not at all
That we the chi…

430
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

The Hour of the Angel

The Hour of the Angel
Sooner or late--in earnest or in jest--
(But the stakes are no jest) Ithuriel's Hour
Will spring on us, for the first time, the tes…

428
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

The Gods Of The Copybook Headings

The Gods Of The Copybook Headings
As I pass through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper protestations to the Gods of the Market-Place.

530
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

The Greek National Anthem

The Greek National Anthem
We knew thee of old,
Oh divinely restored,
By the light of thine eyes
And the light of thy Sword.
From the grav…

429
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

The French Wars

The French Wars
Napoleonic
The boats of Newhaven and Folkestone and Dover
To Dieppe and Boulogne and to Calais cross over;
And in each of those…

489
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

The Gift Of The Sea

The Gift Of The Sea
The dead child lay in the shroud,
And the widow watched beside;
And her mother slept, and the Channel swept
The gale in the t…

421
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

The Floods

The Floods
The rain it rains without a stay
In the hills above us, in the hills;
And presently the floods break way
Whose strength is in the hill…

637
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

The Four Angels

The Four Angels
As Adam lay a-dreaming beneath the Apple Tree
The Angel of the Earth came down, and offered Earth in fee;
But Adam did not need it,

487
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

The First Chantey

The First Chantey
Mine was the woman to me, darkling I found her;
Haling her dumb from the camp, took her and bound her.
Hot rose her tribe on our track …

416
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

The Female of the Species

The Female of the Species
When the Himalayan peasant meets the he-bear in his pride,
He shouts to scare the monster who will often turn aside.
But the sh…

628
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

The Fall of Jock Gillespie

The Fall of Jock Gillespie
This fell when dinner-time was done --
'Twixt the first an' the second rub --
That oor mon Jock cam' hame again
To his…

481
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

The Fabulists

The Fabulists
-
When all the world would keep a matter hid,
Since Truth is seldom Friend to any crowd,
Men write in Fable, as old AEsop did,

535
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

The English Flag

The English Flag
Above the portico a flag-staff, bearing the Union Jack,
remained fluttering in the flames for some time, but ultimately
when it fell the…

667
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

The Explanation

The Explanation
Love and Death once ceased their strife
At the Tavern of Man's Life.
Called for wine, and threw -- alas! --
Each his quiver on th…

397
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

The Dutch in the Medway

The Dutch in the Medway
If wars were won by feasting,
Or victory by song,
Or safety found in sleeping sound,
How England would be strong!

477
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

The 'Eathen

The 'Eathen
The 'eathen in 'is blindness bows down to wood an' stone;
'E don't obey no orders unless they is 'is own;
'E keeps 'is side-arms awful: 'e le…

598
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

The Derelict

The Derelict
~And reports the derelict ~Mary Pollock~ still at sea.~
SHIPPING NEWS.
I was the staunchest of our fleet
Till the sea rose beneath o…

514
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

The Disciple

The Disciple
He that hath a Gospel
To loose upon Mankind,
Though he serve it utterly--
Body, soul and mind--
Though he go to Calvary

488
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

The Decline of the West

The Decline of the West
Now it is not good for the Christian's health to hustle the Aryan
brown,
For the Christian riles, and the Aryan smiles, and he we…

657
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

The Dead King

The Dead King
EDWARD VII.
Who in the Realm to-day lays down dear life for the sake of a land more dear?
And, unconcerned for his own estate, toils t…

479
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

The Crab That Played with the Sea

The Crab That Played with the Sea
China-going P. & O.'s
Pass Pau Amma's playground close,
And his Pusat Tasek lies
Near the track of most B.I.'s.…

589
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

The Cure

The Cure
Long years ago, ere R--lls or R--ce
Trebled the mileage man could cover;
When Sh--nks's Mare was H--bs--n's Choice,
And Bl--r--ot had no…

384