Songs from Books by Rudyard Kipling

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SONGS FROM BOOKS

BY

RUDYARD KIPLING

MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED

ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON

1914

COPYRIGHT

_All rights reserved, including that of
translation into foreign languages,
including the Scandinavian_

_First Edition October_ 1913

_Reprinted October (twice), November_ 1913, 1914

_PREFACE_

_I have collected in this volume practically all the
verses and chapter-headings scattered through my books.
In several cases where only a few lines of verse were
originally used, I have given in full the song, etc., from
which they were taken._

_RUDYARD KIPLING._

'_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!'_

CONTENTS

SONG BOOK PAGE
Angutivaun Taina Second Jungle Book 292
Astrologer's Song, An Rewards and Fairies 164
Ballad of Minepit Shaw, The Rewards and Fairies 266
Bee Boy's Song, The Puck of Pook's Hill 172
Bees and the Flies, The Actions and Reactions 89
Blue Roses Light that Failed 225
British-Roman Song, A Puck 96
Brookland Road Rewards and Fairies 10
Butterflies Traffics and Discoveries 228
'By the Hoof of the Wild Goat' Plain Tales 217
Captive, The Traffics and Discoveries 71
Carol, A Rewards and Fairies 41
_Chapter Headings_ Beast and Man, etc. 132
" " Jungle Books 245
" " Just-So Stories 182
" " Naulahka, Light that Failed 78
" " Plain Tales 30
Charm, A Rewards and Fairies 26
Children's Song, The Puck 143
Chil's Song Second Jungle Book 69
'Cities and Thrones and Powers' Puck vii
City of Sleep, The The Day's Work 198
Cold Iron Rewards and Fairies 36
Cuckoo Song Heathfield Parish Memoirs 24
Darzee's Chaunt Jungle Book 299
Dedication, A Soldiers Three 235
Eddi's Service Rewards and Fairies 45
Egg-shell, The Traffics and Discoveries 254
Fairies' Siege, The Kim 50
Four Angels, The Actions and Reactions 301
Frankie's Trade Rewards and Fairies 285
Gallio's Song Actions and Reactions 86
Gow's Watch Kim 206
Hadramauti Plain Tales 75
Harp Song of the Dane Women Puck 60
Heriot's Ford Light that Failed 283
Heritage, The The Empire and the Century 130
Hunting Song of the
Seeonee Pack Jungle Book 294
If-- Rewards and Fairies 149
Jester, The Collected 156
Jubal and Tubal Cain Letters to the Family 112
Juggler's Song, The Naulahka 288
Kingdom, The Naulahka 15
King Henry VII. and the
Shipwrights Rewards and Fairies 272
King's Task, The Traffics and Discoveries 256
Law of the Jungle, The Second Jungle Book 120
Looking-Glass, The Rewards and Fairies 193
Love Song of Har Dyal, The Plain Tales 234
'Lukannon' Jungle Book 161
Merrow Down Just-So Stories 176
Morning Song in the Jungle Second Jungle Book 223
Mother o' Mine Light that Failed 237
Mowgli's Song against People Second Jungle Book 241
My Lady's Law Naulahka 230
'My New-Cut Ashlar' Life's Handicap 43
Necessitarian, The Traffics and Discoveries 154
New Knighthood, The Actions and Reactions 54
Nursing Sister, The Naulahka 232
Old Mother Laidinwool Puck 179
Only Son, The Many Inventions 238
'Our Fathers also' Traffics and Discoveries 94
'Our Fathers of Old' Rewards and Fairies 127
Outsong in the Jungle Second Jungle Book 56
Parade Song of the Camp Animals Jungle Book 145
Pict Song, A Puck 98
'Poor Honest Men' Rewards and Fairies 105
Poseidon's Law Traffics and Discoveries 263
'Power of the Dog, The' Actions and Reactions 168
Prairie, The Letters to the Family 28
Prayer, The Kim 303
Prayer of Miriam Cohen, The Many Inventions 202
Prodigal Son, The Kim 151
Prophets at Home Puck 111
Pock's Song Puck 3
Puzzler, The Actions and Reactions 73
Queen's Men, The Rewards and Fairies 196
Rabbi's Song, The Actions and Reactions 170
Recall, The Actions and Reactions 1
Return of the Children, The Traffics and Discoveries 174
'Rimini' Puck 102
Ripple Song, A Second Jungle Book 226
Road Song of the _Bandar_-_Log_ Jungle Book 92
Romulus and Remus Letters to the Family 243
Run of the Downs, The Rewards and Fairies 9
Sack of the Gods, The Naulahka 12
School Song, A Stalky & Co. 116
'Servant When He Reigneth, A' Letters to the Family 124
Shiv and the Grasshopper Jungle Book 48
Sir Richard's Song Puck 19
Smuggler's Song, A Puck 269
Song of Kabir, A Second Jungle Book 39
Song of the Fifth River Puck 140
Song of the Little Hunter Second Jungle Book 204
Song of the Men's Side Rewards and Fairies 296
Song of the Red War-Boat Rewards and Fairies 219
Song of Travel, A Letters to the Family 157
Song to Mithras, A Puck 52
St. Helena Lullaby, A Rewards and Fairies 66
Stranger, The Letters to the Family 100
Tarrant Moss Plain Tales 17
Thorkild's Song Puck 290
Thousandth Man, The Rewards and Fairies 62
Three-Part Song, A Puck 8
Tree Song, A Puck 21
Truthful Song, A Rewards and Fairies 266
Two-Sided Man, The Kim 159
Voortrekker, The Collected 114
Way through the Woods, The Rewards and Fairies 6
Wet Litany, The Traffics and Discoveries 277
'When the Great Ark' Letters to the Family 109
Widower, The Various 200
Winners, The Story of the Gadsbys 64
Wishing Caps, The Kim 215

INDEX TO FIRST LINES

PAGE
About the time that taverns shut, 279
A farmer of the Augustan Age, 89
After the sack of the City, when Rome was sunk to a name, 256
All day long to the judgment-seat, 86
All the world over, nursing their scars, 138
Alone upon the housetops to the North, 234
And if ye doubt the tale I tell, 136
'And some are sulky, while some will plunge', 32
And they were stronger hands than mine, 235
As Adam lay a-dreaming beneath the Apple Tree, 301
As the dawn was breaking the Sambhur belled, 294
A stone's throw out on either hand, 34
At the hole where he went in, 249

Beat off in our last fight were we?, 79
Because I sought it far from men, 80
Bees! Bees! Hark to your bees!, 172
Before my spring I garnered autumn's gain, 135
Between the waving tufts of jungle-grass, 133
By the Hoof of the Wild Goat uptossed, 217

China-going P. and O.'s, 189
Cities and Thrones and Powers, vii
Cry 'Murder' in the market-place, and each, 31

Dark children of the mere and marsh, 133

Eddi, priest of St. Wilfrid, 45
Ere Mor the Peacock flutters, ere the Monkey People cry, 204
Excellent herbs had our fathers of old, 127
Eyes aloft, over dangerous places, 228

For a season there must be pain, 200
For our white and our excellent nights--for the nights
of swift running, 248
For the sake of him who showed, 56
From the wheel and the drift of Things, 202

'Gold is for the mistress--silver for the maid', 36
Go, stalk the red deer o'er the heather, 31

Harry, our King in England, from London town is gone, 272
He drank strong waters and his speech was coarse, 35
Here come I to my own again, 151
Here we go in a flung festoon, 92
His spots are the joy of the Leopard: his horns are the
Buffalo's pride, 245
'How far is St. Helena from a little child at play?', 66

I am the land of their fathers, 1
I am the Most Wise Baviaan, saying in most wise tones, 184
I closed and drew for my love's sake, 17
'If I have taken the common clay', 84
If I were hanged on the highest hill, 237
I followed my Duke ere I was a lover, 19
If Thought can reach to Heaven, 170
If you can keep your head when all about you, 149
If you wake at midnight, and hear a horse's feet, 269
I have been given my charge to keep, 50
I keep six honest serving-men, 185
I know not in Whose hands are laid, 154
I met my mates in the morning (and oh, but I am old!), 161
I'm just in love with all these three, 8
In the daytime, when she moved about me, 34
'I see the grass shake in the sun for leagues on either
hand', 28
I tell this tale, which is strictly true, 266
It was not in the open fight, 33
I've never sailed the Amazon, 188
I was very well pleased with what I knowed, 10
I will let loose against you the fleet-footed vines, 241
I will remember what I was, I am sick of rope and chain, 251

Jubal sang of the Wrath of God, 112

Land of our Birth, we pledge to thee, 143
'Less you want your toes trod off you'd better get back
at once', 138
'Let us now praise famous men', 116
Life's all getting and giving, 215
Look, you have cast out Love! What Gods are these, 30

Man goes to Man! Cry the challenge through the Jungle!, 249
Mithras, God of the Morning, our trumpets waken the Wall!, 52
Much I owe to the Land that grew, 159
My Brother kneels, so saith Kabir, 303
My father's father saw it not, 96
My new-cut ashlar takes the light, 43

Neither the harps nor the crowns amused, nor the cherubs'
dove-winged races, 174
Not though you die to-night, O Sweet, and wail, 32
Not with an outcry to Allah nor any complaining, 71
Now Chil the Kite brings home the night, 245
Now it is not good for the Christian's health to hustle
the Aryan brown, 79
Now this is the Law of the Jungle--as old and as true as
the sky, 120
Now we are come to our Kingdom, 15

Of all the trees that grow so fair, 21
Oh! hush thee, my baby, the night is behind us, 250
Oh, light was the world that he weighed in his hands!, 39
Oh, little did the Wolf-Child care, 243
Old Horn to All Atlantic said, 285

'Old Mother Laidinwool had nigh twelve months been dead', 179
Once a ripple came to land, 226
Once we feared The Beast--when he followed us we ran, 296
One man in a thousand, Solomon says, 62
One moment past our bodies cast, 223
Our Fathers in a wondrous age, 130
Our gloves are stiff with the frozen blood, 292
Our Lord Who did the Ox command, 41
Our sister sayeth such and such, 232
Over the edge of the purple down, 198

Pit where the buffalo cooled his hide, 35
Prophets have honour all over the Earth, 111
Pussy can sit by the fire and sing, 190

Queen Bess was Harry's daughter. Stand forward partners
all!, 193

Ride with an idle whip, ride with an unused heel, 33
Rome never looks where she treads, 98
Roses red and roses white, 225

See you the ferny ride that steals, 3
She dropped the bar, she shot the bolt, she fed the fire
anew, 238
Shiv, who poured the harvest and made the winds to blow, 48
Shove off from the wharf-edge! Steady!, 219
Singer and tailor am I, 299
So we settled it all when the storm was done, 83
'Stopped in the straight when the race was his own!', 31
Strangers drawn from the ends of the earth, jewelled and
plumed were we, 12

Take of English earth as much, 26
Tell it to the locked-up trees, 24
The beasts are very wise, 143
The Camel's hump is an ugly lump, 182
The Celt in all his variants from Builth to Ballyhoo, 73
The doors were wide, the story saith, 135
The gull shall whistle in his wake, the blind wave break
in fire, 114
The lark will make her hymn to God, 84
The Law whereby my lady moves, 230
The night we felt the earth would move, 253
The People of the Eastern Ice, they are melting like the
snow, 252
There are three degrees of bliss, 156
There is pleasure in the wet, wet clay, 81
There is sorrow enough in the natural way, 168
There runs a road by Merrow Down, 176
There's a convict more in the Central Jail, 137
There's no wind along these seas, 290
There was a strife 'twixt man and maid, 81
There was never a Queen like Balkis, 191
There were three friends that buried the fourth, 85
These are the Four that are never content, that have
never been filled since the Dews began, 248
These were my companions going forth by night, 69
The Stranger within my gate, 100
The stream is shrunk--the pool is dry, 246
The torn boughs trailing o'er the tusks aslant, 133
The Weald is good, the Downs are best, 9
The wind took off with the sunset, 254
The wolf-cub at even lay hid in the corn, 84
The World hath set its heavy yoke, 32
They burnt a corpse upon the sand, 33
They killed a child to please the Gods, 132
They shut the road through the woods, 6
This I saw when the rites were done, 79
This is the mouth-filling song of the race that was run
by a Boomer, 186
Three things make earth unquiet, 124
Thrones, Powers, Dominions, Peoples, Kings, 94
To-night, God knows what thing shall tide, 34
To the Heavens above us, 164

Unto whose use the pregnant suns are poised, 136

Valour and Innocence, 196
Veil them, cover them, wall them round, 247

We be the Gods of the East, 82
We lent to Alexander the strength of Hercules, 145
We meet in an evil land, 78
What is a woman that you forsake her, 60
What is the moral? Who rides may read, 64
What of the hunting, hunter bold?, 247
'What's that that hirples at my side?', 283
When a lover hies abroad, 81
When first by Eden Tree, 140
When I left home for Lalage's sake, 102
When the cabin port-holes are dark and green, 182
When the drums begin to beat, 288
When the Earth was sick and the Skies were grey, 30
When the Great Ark, in Vigo Bay, 109
When the robust and Brass-bound Man commissioned first
for sea, 263
When the water's countenance, 277
When ye say to Tabaqui, 'My Brother!' when ye call the
Hyena to meat, 252
Where's the lamp that Hero lit 157
Who gives him the Bath? 54
Who knows the heart of the Christian? How does he reason? 75

Yet at the last, ere our spearmen had found him 85
You mustn't swim till you're six weeks old 250
Your jar of Virginny 105
Your tiercel's too long at hack, Sir. He's no eyass 206

THE RECALL

I am the land of their fathers.
In me the virtue stays.
I will bring back my children,
After certain days.

Under their feet in the grasses
My clinging magic runs.
They shall return as strangers,
They shall remain as sons.

Over their heads in the branches
Of their new-bought, ancient trees,
I weave an incantation
And draw them to my knees.

Scent of smoke in the evening.
Smell of rain in the night,
The hours, the days and the seasons,
Order their souls aright;

Till I make plain the meaning
Of all my thousand years--
Till I fill their hearts with knowledge.
While I fill their eyes with tears.

PUCK'S SONG

See you the ferny ride that steals
Into the oak-woods far?
O that was whence they hewed the keels
That rolled to Trafalgar.

And mark you where the ivy clings
To Bayham's mouldering walls?
O there we cast the stout railings
That stand around St. Paul's.

See you the dimpled track that runs
All hollow through the wheat?
O that was where they hauled the guns
That smote King Philip's fleet.

Out of the Weald, the secret Weald,
Men sent in ancient years,
The horse-shoes red at Flodden Field,
The arrows at Poitiers.

See you our little mill that clacks,
So busy by the brook?
She has ground her corn and paid her tax
Ever since Domesday Book.

See you our stilly woods of oak?
And the dread ditch beside?
O that was where the Saxons broke
On the day that Harold died.

See you the windy levels spread
About the gates of Rye?
O that was where the Northmen fled,
When Alfred's ships came by.

See you our pastures wide and lone,
Where the red oxen browse?
O there was a City thronged and known.
Ere London boasted a house.

And see you, after rain, the trace
Of mound and ditch and wall?
O that was a Legion's camping-place,
When Caesar sailed from Gaul.

And see you marks that show and fade,
Like shadows on the Downs?
O they are the lines the Flint Men made,
To guard their wondrous towns.

Trackway and Camp and City lost,
Salt Marsh where now is corn;
Old Wars, old Peace, old Arts that cease,
And so was England born!

She is not any common Earth,
Water or wood or air,
But Merlin's Isle of Gramarye,
Where you and I will fare.

THE WAY THROUGH THE WOODS

They shut the road through the woods
Seventy years ago.
Weather and rain have undone it again,
And now you would never know
There was once a road through the woods
Before they planted the trees.
It is underneath the coppice and heath,
And the thin anemones.
Only the keeper sees
That, where the ring-dove broods.
And the badgers roll at ease,
There was once a road through the woods.

Yet, if you enter the woods
Of a summer evening late,
When the night-air cools on the trout-ringed pools
Where the otter whistles his mate.
(They fear not men in the woods.
Because they see so few)
You will hear the beat of a horse's feet,
And the swish of a skirt in the dew,
Steadily cantering through
The misty solitudes,
As though they perfectly knew
The old lost road through the woods ...
But there is no road through the woods!

A THREE-PART SONG

I'm just in love with all these three,
The Weald and the Marsh and the Down countrie;
Nor I don't know which I love the most,
The Weald or the Marsh or the white chalk coast!

I've buried my heart in a ferny hill,
Twix' a liddle low shaw an' a great high gill.
Oh hop-bine yaller an' wood-smoke blue,
I reckon you'll keep her middling true!

I've loosed my mind for to out and run
On a Marsh that was old when Kings begun.
Oh Romney Level and Brenzett reeds,
I reckon you know what my mind needs!

I've given my soul to the Southdown grass,
And sheep-bells tinkled where you pass.
Oh Firle an' Ditchling an' sails at sea,
I reckon you keep my soul for me!

THE RUN OF THE DOWNS

_The Weald is good, the Downs are best_--
_I'll give you the run of 'em, East to West._
Beachy Head and Winddoor Hill,
They were once and they are still,
Firle, Mount Caburn and Mount Harry
Go back as far as sums'll carry.
Ditchling Beacon and Chanctonbury Ring,
They have looked on many a thing,
And what those two have missed between 'em
I reckon Truleigh Hill has seen 'em.
Highden, Bignor and Duncton Down
Knew Old England before the Crown.
Linch Down, Treyford and Sunwood
Knew Old England before the Flood.
And when you end on the Hampshire side--
Butser's old as Time and Tide.
_The Downs are sheep, the Weald is corn,_
_You be glad you are Sussex born!_

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