Rudyard Kipling's Verse :: :: University of Virginia Library

I had some friends—but I dreamed that they were dead—
Who used to dance with lanterns round a little boy in bed;
Green and white lanterns that waved to and fro:
But I haven't seen a Firefly since ever so long ago!

I had some friends—their crowns were in the sky—
Who used to nod and whisper when a little boy went by,
As the nuts began to tumble and the breeze began to blow:
And I haven't seen a Cocoa-palm since ever so long ago!

I had a friend—he came up from Cape Horn,
With a Coal-sack on his shoulder when a little boy was born.
He heard me learn to talk, and he helped me thrive and grow:
But I haven't seen the Southern Cross since ever so long ago!

I had a boat—I out and let her drive,
Till I found my dream was foolish, for my friends were all alive.
The Cocoa-palms were real, and the Southern Cross was true:
And the Fireflies were dancing—so I danced too!

809

A SONG OF BANANAS

Have you no Bananas, simple townsmen all?
“Nay, but we have them certainly.
“We buy them off the barrows, with the vegetable-marrows
“And the cabbage of our own country,
“(From the costers of our own country.)”

Those are not Bananas, simple townsmen all.
(Plantains from Canaryward maybe!)
For the true are red and gold, and they fill no steamer's hold,
But flourish in a rare country,
(That men go far to see.)

Their stiff fronds point the nooning down, simple townsmen all,
Or rear against the breezes off the sea;
Or duck and loom again, through the curtains of the rain
That the loaded hills let free—
(Bellying 'twixt the uplands and the sea.)

Little birds inhabit there, simple townsmen all—
Jewelled things no bigger than a bee;
And the opal butterflies plane and settle, flare and rise,
Through the low-arched greenery,
(That is malachite and jade of the sea.)

The red earth works and whispers there, simple townsmen all,
Day and night in rank fecundity,
That the Blossom and the Snake lie open and awake,
As it was by Eden Tree,
(When the First Moon silvered through the Tree) . . .

But you must go to business, simple townsmen all,
By 'bus and train and tram and tube must flee!
For your Pharpars and Abanas do not include Bananas
(And Jordan is a distant stream to drink of, simple townsmen),
Which leaves the more for me!

810

SONG OF THE DYNAMO

How do I know what Order brings
Me into being?
I only know, if you do certain things,
I must become your Hearing and your Seeing;
Also your Strength, to make great wheels go round,
And save your sons from toil, while I am bound!

What do I care how you dispose
The Powers that move me?
I only know that I am one with those
True Powers which rend the firmament above me,
And, harrying earth, would save me at the last—
But that your coward foresight holds me fast!

“SUCH AS IN SHIPS”

Such as in Ships and brittle Barks
Into the Seas descend
Shall learn how wholly on those Arks
Our Victuals do depend.
For, when a Man would bite or sup,
Or buy him Goods or Gear,
He needs must call the Oceans up,
And move an Hemisphere.

Consider, now, that Indian Weed
Which groweth o'er the Main,
With Teas and Cottons for our Need,
And Sugar of the Cane—
Their Comings We no more regard
Than daily Corn or Oil:
Yet, when Men waft Them Englandward,
How infinite the Toil!

Nation and People harvesteth
The tropique Lands among,
And Engines of tumultuous Breath
Do draw the Yield along—
Yea, even as by Hecatombs
Which, presently struck down
Into our Navies' labouring Wombs
Make Pennyworths in Town.

811

“POISON OF ASPS”

(A Brazilian Snake-Farm)

“Poison of asps is under our lips”?
Why do you seek us, then?
Breaking our knotted fellowships
With your noisy-footed men?

Time and time over we let them go;
Hearing and slipping aside;
Until they followed and troubled us—so
We struck back, and they died.

“Poison of asps is under our lips”?
Why do you wrench them apart?
To learn how the venom makes and drips
And works its way to the heart?

It is unjust that when we have done
All that a serpent should,
You gather our poisons, one by one,
And thin them out to your good.

“Poison of asps is under our lips.”
That is your answer? No!
Because we hissed at Adam's eclipse
Is the reason you hate us so.

THE OPEN DOOR

England is a cosy little country,
Excepting for the draughts along the floor.
And that is why you're told,
When the passages are cold:
“Darling, you've forgot to shut the Door!”

The Awful East Wind blows it—
Pussy on the Hearthrug shows it,
Aunty at the Writing-table knows it—
“Darling, you've forgot to shut the Door!”

Shut—shut—shut the Door, my darling!
Always shut the Door behind you, but
You can go when you are old
Where there isn't any cold—

812

So there isn't any Door that need be shut! And—
The deep Verandah shows it—
The pale Magnolia knows it—
And the bold, white Trumpet-flower blows it:—
There isn't any Door that need be shut!

The piping Tree-toad knows it—
The midnight Firefly shows it—
And the Beams of the Moon disclose it:—
There isn't any Door that need be shut!

The milky Beaches know it—
The silky Breezes blow it—
And the Shafts of the Sunrise show it:—
There isn't any Door that need be shut!

TWO RACES

I seek not what his soul desires.
He dreads not what my spirit fears.
Our Heavens have shown us separate fires.
Our dooms have dealt us differing years.

Our daysprings and our timeless dead
Ordained for us and still control
Lives sundered at the fountain-head,
And distant, now, as Pole from Pole.

Yet, dwelling thus, these worlds apart,
When we encounter each is free
To bare that larger, liberal heart
Our kin and neighbours seldom see.

(Custom and code compared in jest—
Weakness delivered without shame—
And certain common sins confessed
Which all men know, and none dare blame.)

E'en so it is, and well content
It should be so a moment's space,
Each finds the other excellent,
And—runs to follow his own race!