‘I see the grass shake in the sun for leagues on either hand, I see a river loop and run about a treeless land– An empty plain, a steely pond, a distance diamond-clear, And low blue naked hills beyond. And what is that to fear?’ ‘Go softly by that river-side or, when you would depart, […]

‘Gold is for the mistress–silver for the maid– Copper for the craftsman cunning at his trade.’ ‘Good!’ said the Baron, sitting in his hall, ‘But Iron–Cold Iron–is master of them all.’ So he made rebellion ‘gainst the King his liege, Camped before his citadel and summoned it to siege. ‘Nay!’ said the cannoneer on the […]

Oh, light was the world that he weighed in his hands! Oh, heavy the tale of his fiefs and his lands! He has gone from the guddee and put on the shroud, And departed in guise of bairagi avowed! Now the white road to Delhi is mat for his feet. The sal and the kikar […]

Our Lord Who did the Ox command To kneel to Judah’s King, He binds His frost upon the land To ripen it for Spring– To ripen it for Spring, good sirs, According to His Word; Which well must be as ye can see– And who shall judge the Lord? When we poor fenmen skate the […]

My new-cut ashlar takes the light Where crimson-blank the windows flare. By my own work before the night, Great Overseer, I make my prayer. If there be good in that I wrought, Thy Hand compelled it, Master, Thine– Where I have failed to meet Thy Thought I know, through Thee, the blame was mine. One […]

(A.D. 687) Eddi, priest of St. Wilfrid In the chapel at Manhood End, Ordered a midnight service For such as cared to attend. But the Saxons were keeping Christmas, And the night was stormy as well. Nobody came to service Though Eddi rang the bell. ‘Wicked weather for walking,’ Said Eddi of Manhood End. ‘But […]

Shiv, who poured the harvest and made the winds to blow, Sitting at the doorways of a day of long ago, Gave to each his portion, food and toil and fate, From the King upon the guddee to the Beggar at the gate. All things made he–Shiva the Preserver. Mahadeo! Mahadeo! He made all,– Thorn […]

I have been given my charge to keep– Well have I kept the same! Playing with strife for the most of my life, But this is a different game. I‘ll not fight against swords unseen, Or spears that I cannot view– Hand him the keys of the place on your knees– ‘Tis the Dreamer whose […]

(Hymn of the 30th Legion: circa A.D. 350.) Mithras, God of the Morning, our trumpets waken the Wall! ‘Rome is above the Nations, but Thou art over all!’ Now as the names are answered and the guards are marched away, Mithras, also a soldier, give us strength for the day! Mithras, God of the Noontide, […]

FOR the sake of him who showed One wise Frog the Jungle-Road, Keep the Law the Man-Pack make For thy blind old Baloo’s sake! Clean or tainted, hot or stale, Hold it as it were the Trail, Through the day and through the night, Questing neither left nor right. For the sake of him who […]

Anger is the egg of Fear– Only lidless eyes are clear. Cobra-poison none may leech, Even so with Cobra-speech. Open talk shall call to thee Strength, whose mate is Courtesy. Send no lunge beyond thy length; Lend no rotten bough thy strength. Gauge thy gape with buck or goat, Lest thine eye should choke thy […]

In the cage my life began; Well I know the worth of Man. By the Broken Lock that freed– Man-cub, ‘ware the Man-cub’s breed! Scenting-dew or starlight pale, Choose no tangled tree-cat trail. Pack or council, hunt or den, Cry no truce with Jackal-Men. Feed them silence when they say: ‘Come with us an easy […]

On the trail that thou must tread To the thresholds of our dread, Where the Flower blossoms red; Through the nights when thou shalt lie Prisoned from our Mother-sky, Hearing us, thy loves, go by; In the dawns when thou shalt wake To the toil thou canst not break, Heartsick for the Jungle’s sake: Wood […]

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 has no house to lay a guest in– But one chill bed for all to rest in, That the pale suns and the stray bergs nest in. She has no strong white arms […]

One man in a thousand, Solomon says, Will stick more close than a brother. And it’s worth while seeking him half your days If you find him before the other. Nine hundred and ninety-nine depend On what the world sees in you, But the Thousandth Man will stand your friend With the whole round world […]

What is the moral? Who rides may read. When the night is thick and the tracks are blind A friend at a pinch is a friend indeed, But a fool to wait for the laggard behind. Down to Gehenna or up to the Throne, He travels the fastest who travels alone. White hands cling to […]

‘How far is St. Helena from a little child at play?’ What makes you want to wander there with all the world between? Oh, Mother, call your son again or else he’ll run away. (No one thinks of winter when the grass is green!) ‘How far is St. Helena from a fight in Paris street?’ […]

These were my companions going forth by night– (For Chil! Look you, for Chil!) Now come I to whistle them the ending of the fight. (Chil! Vanguards of Chil!) Word they gave me overhead of quarry newly slain, Word I gave them underfoot of buck upon the plain. Here’s an end of every trail–they shall […]

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 bloodshed, and what devils move him When he arises to smite us? I do not love him. He invites the derision of strangers–he enters all places. Booted, bareheaded he enters. […]

Here we go in a flung festoon, Half-way up to the jealous moon! Don’t you envy our pranceful bands? Don’t you wish you had extra hands? Wouldn’t you like if your tails were–so— Curved in the shape of a Cupid’s bow? Now you’re angry, but–never mind, Brother, thy tail hangs down behind! Here we sit […]