Poems

Poems List

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Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

If -

If -
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But …

532
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

If

If
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But ma…

670
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

Hunting Song of the Seeonee Pack

Hunting Song of the Seeonee Pack
As the dawn was breaking the Sambhur belled
Once, twice, and again!
And a doe leaped up -- and a doe leaped up
F…

500
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

Hymn to Physical Pain

Hymn to Physical Pain
Dread Mother of Forgetfulness
Who, when Thy reign begins,
Wipest away the Soul's distress,
And memory of her sins.

448
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

How the Rhinoceros got His Skin

How the Rhinoceros got His Skin
This Uninhabited Island
Is near Cape Gardafui;
But it's hot--too hot--of Suez
For the likes of you and me

517
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

How the Camel Got His Hump

How the Camel Got His Hump
The Camel's hump is an ugly lump
Which well you may see at the Zoo;
But uglier yet is the hump we get
From having too …

487
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

How Fear Came

How Fear Came
The stream is shrunk--the pool is dry,
And we be comrades, thou and I;
With fevered jowl and dusty flank
Each jostling each along t…

460
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

Heriot's Ford

Heriot's Ford
"What's that that hirples at my side?"
The foe that you must fight, my lord.
"That rides as fast as I can ride?"
The shadow of y…

456
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

Hadramauti

Hadramauti
Who knows the heart of the Christian? How does he reason?
What are his measures and balances? Which is his season
For laughter, forbearance or…

446
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

Harp Song of the Dane Women

Harp Song of the Dane Women
What is a woman that you forsake her,
And the hearth-fire and the home-acre.
To go with the old grey Widow-maker?
She…

472
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

Gods of the East

Gods of the East
Because I sought it far from men,
In deserts and alone,
I found it burning overhead,
The jewel of a Throne.
Because I so…

462
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

Gunga Din

Gunga Din
You may talk o' gin and beer
When you're quartered safe out 'ere,
An' you're sent to penny-fights an' Aldershot it;
But when it comes t…

729
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

Gertrude's Prayer

Gertrude's Prayer
That which is marred at birth Time shall not mend,
Nor water out of bitter well make clean;
All evil thing returneth at the end,

438
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

Giffen's Debt

Giffen's Debt
Imprimis he was "broke." Thereafter left
His Regiment and, later, took to drink;
Then, having lost the balance of his friends,
"Wen…

500
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

Gehazi

Gehazi

Whence comest thou, Gehazi,
So reverend to behold,
In scarlet and in ermines
And chain of England's gold?"
"From follow…

467
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

Gentleman-rankers

Gentleman-rankers
To the legion of the lost ones, to the cohort of the damned,
To my brethren in their sorrow overseas,
Sings a gentleman of England clea…

467
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

Four-Feet

Four-Feet
I have done mostly what most men do,
And pushed it out of my mind;
But I can't forget, if I wanted to,
Four-Feet trotting behind.

483
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

Fuzzy-Wuzzy

Fuzzy-Wuzzy
(Soudan Expeditionary Force)
We've fought with many men acrost the seas,
An' some of 'em was brave an' some was not:
The Paythan an…

519
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

Follow Me 'Ome

Follow Me 'Ome
There was no one like 'im, 'Orse or Foot,
Nor any o' the Guns I knew;
An' because it was so, why, o' course 'e went an' died,
Whic…

398
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

For To Admire

For To Admire
The Injian Ocean sets an' smiles
So sof', so bright, so bloomin' blue;
There aren't a wave for miles an' miles
Excep' the jiggle fr…

412
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

False Dawn

False Dawn
To-night, God knows what thing shall tide,
The Earth is racked and fain--
Expectant, sleepless, open-eyed;
And we, who from the Earth …

414
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

Farewell and adieu....

Farewell and adieu....
Farewell and adieu to you, Harwich Ladies,
Farewell and adieu to you, ladies ashore!
For we've received orders to work to the east…

482
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

Evarra And His Gods

Evarra And His Gods
~Read here:
This is the story of Evarra -- man --
Maker of Gods in lands beyond the sea.~
Because the city gave him of her go…

578
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling

En-Dor

En-Dor
Behold there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at En-dor. -- I Samuel, xxviii.

The road to En-dor is easy to tread
For Mother or y…

531