I was a young un at ’Oogli,
Shy as a girl to begin;
Aggie de Castrer she made me,
20
An’ Aggie was clever as sin;
Older than me, but my first un –
More like a mother she were –
Showed me the way to promotion an’ pay,
An’ I learned about women from ’er!
25
Then I was ordered to Burma,
Actin’ in charge o’ Bazar,
An’ I got me a tiddy live ’eathen
Through buyin’ supplies off ’er pa.
Funny an’ yellow an’ faithful –
30
Doll in a teacup she were –
But we lived on the square, like a true-married pair,
An’ I learned about women from ’er!
Then we was shifted to Neemuch
(Or I might ha’ been keepin’ ’er now),
35
An’ I took with a shiny she-devil,
The wife of a nigger at Mhow;
Taught me the gipsy-folks’ bolee;
Kind o’ volcano she were,
For she knifed me one night ’cause I wished she was white,
40
And I learned about women from ’er!
Then I come ’ome in a trooper,
’Long of a kid o’ sixteen –
Girl from a convent at Meerut,
The straightest I ever ’ave seen.
45
Love at first sight was ’er trouble,
She didn’t know what it were;
An’ I wouldn’t do such, ’cause I liked ’er too much,
But – I learned about women from ’er!
I’ve taken my fun where I’ve found it,
50
An’ now I must pay for my fun,
For the more you ’ave known o’ the others
The less will you settle to one;
An’ the end of it’s sittin’ an’ thinkin’,
An’ dreamin’ Hell-fires to see;
55
So be warned by my lot (which I know you will not),
An’ learn about women from me!
What did the Colonel’s Lady think?
Nobody never knew.
Somebody asked the Sergeant’s Wife,
60
An’ she told ’em true!
When you get to a man in the case,
They’re like as a row of pins –
For the Colonel’s Lady an’ Judy O’Grady
Are sisters under their skins!
The Sergeant’s Weddin’
’E was warned agin ’er –
That’s what made ’im look;
She was warned agin’ ’im –
That is why she took.
5
Wouldn’t ’ear no reason,
Went an’ done it blind;
We know all about ’em,
They’ve got all to find!
Cheer for the Sergeant’s weddin’ –
10
Give ’em one cheer more!
Grey gun-’orses in the lando,
An’ a rogue is married to, etc.
What’s the use o’ tellin’
’Arf the lot she’s been?
15
’E’s a bloomin’ robber,
An’ ’e keeps canteen.
’Ow did ’e get ’is buggy?
Gawd, you needn’t ask!
Made ’is forty gallon
20
Out of every cask!
Watch ’im, with ’is ’air cut,
Count us filin’ by –
Won’t the Colonel praise ’is
Pop-u-lar-i-ty!
25
We ’ave scores to settle –
Scores for more than beer;
She’s the girl to pay ’em –
That is why we’re ’ere!
See the Chaplain thinkin’?
30
See the women smile?
Twig the married winkin’
As they take the aisle?
Keep your side-arms quiet,
Dressin’ by the Band.
35
Ho! You ’oly beggars,
Cough be’ind your ’and!
Now it’s done an’ over,
’Ear the organ squeak,
‘Voice that breathed o’er Eden’ –
40
Ain’t she got the cheek!
White an’ laylock ribbons,
Think yourself so fine!
I’d pray Gawd to take yer
’Fore I made yer mine!
45
Escort to the kerridge,
Wish ’im luck, the brute!
Chuck the slippers after –
(Pity ’taint a boot!)
Bowin’ like a lady,
50
Blushin’ like a lad –
’Oo would say to see ’em
Both is rotten bad?
Cheer for the Sergeant’s weddin’ –
Give ’em one cheer more!
55
Grey gun-’orses in the lando’
An’ a rogue is married to, etc.
The Vampire
A fool there was and he made his prayer
(Even as you and I!)
To a rag and a bone and a hank of hair
(We called her the woman who did not care)
5
But the fool he called her his lady fair –
(Even as you and I!)
Oh, the years we waste and the tears we waste
And the work of our head and hand
Belong to the woman who did not know
10
(And now we know that she never could know)
And did not understand!
A fool there was and his goods he spent
(Even as you and I!)
Honour and faith and a sure intent
15
(And it wasn’t the least what the lady meant)
But a fool must follow his natural bent
(Even as you and I!)
Oh, the toil we lost and the spoil we lost
And the excellent things we planned
20
Belong to the woman who didn’t know why
(And now we know that she never knew why)
And did not understand!
The fool was stripped to his foolish hide
(Even as you and I!)
25
Which she might have seen when she threw him aside –
(But it isn’t on record the lady tried)
So some of him lived but the most of him died –
(Even as you and I!)
And it isn’t the shame, and it isn’t the blame
30
That stings like a white-hot brand –
It’s coming to know that she never knew why
(Seeing, at last, she could never know why)
And never could understand!
Recessional
1897
God of our fathers, known of old,
Lord of our far-flung battle-line,
Beneath whose awful Hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine –
5
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget – lest we forget!
The tumult and the shouting dies;
The Captains and the Kings depart:
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
10
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget – lest we forget!
Far-called, our navies melt away;
On dune and headland sinks the fire:
15
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,
Lest we forget – lest we forget!
If, drunk with sight of power, we loose
20
&nbs
p; Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe,
Such boastings as the Gentiles use,
Or lesser breeds without the Law –
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget – lest we forget!
25
For heathen heart that puts her trust
In reeking tube and iron shard,
All valiant dust that builds on dust,
And guarding, calls not Thee to guard,
For frantic boast and foolish word –
30
Thy mercy on Thy People, Lord!
The White Man’s Burden
1899
(THE UNITED STATES AND THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS)
Take up the White Man’s burden –
Send forth the best ye breed –
Go, bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives’ need;
5
To wait in heavy harness
On fluttered folk and wild –
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half devil and half child.
Take up the White Man’s Burden –
10
In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain,
15
To seek another’s profit,
And work another’s gain.
Take up the White Man’s burden –
The savage wars of peace –
Fill full the mouth of Famine
20
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
The end for others sought,
Watch Sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hope to nought.
25
Take up the White Man’s burden –
No tawdry rule of Kings,
But toil of serf and sweeper –
The tale of common things.
The ports ye shall not enter,
30
The roads ye shall not tread,
Go make them with your living,
And mark them with your dead!
Take up the White Man’s burden –
And reap his old reward:
35
The blame of those ye better,
The hate of those ye guard –
The cry of hosts ye humour
(Ah, slowly!) toward the light:—
‘Why brought ye us from bondage,
40
Our loved Egyptian night?’
Take up the White Man’s burden –
Ye dare not stoop to less –
Nor call too loud on Freedom
To cloak your weariness;
45
By all ye cry or whisper,
By all ye leave or do,
The silent, sullen peoples
Shall weigh your Gods and you.
Take up the White Man’s burden –
50
Have done with childish days –
The lightly proffered laurel,
The easy, ungrudged praise.
Comes now, to search your manhood
Through all the thankless years,
55
Cold-edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgment of your peers!
Cruisers
As our mother the Frigate, bepainted and fine,
Made play for her bully the Ship of the Line;
So we, her bold daughters by iron and fire,
Accost and decoy to our masters’ desire.
5
Now, pray you, consider what toils we endure,
Night-walking wet sea-lanes, a guard and a lure;
Since half of our trade is that same pretty sort
As mettlesome wenches do practise in port.
For this is our office – to spy and make room,
10
As hiding yet guiding the foe to their doom;
Surrounding, confounding, we bait and betray
And tempt them to battle the sea’s width away.
The pot-bellied merchant foreboding no wrong
With headlight and sidelight he lieth along,
15
Till, lightless and lightfoot and lurking, leap we
To force him discover his business by sea.
And when we have wakened the lust of a foe,
To draw him by flight toward our bullies we go,
Till, ’ware of strange smoke stealing nearer, he flies
20
Ere our bullies close in for to make him good prize.
So, when we have spied on the path of their host,
One flieth to carry that word to the coast;
And, lest by false doublings they turn and go free,
One lieth behind them to follow and see.
25
Anon we return, being gathered again,
Across the sad valleys all drabbled with rain –
Across the grey ridges all crispèd and curled –
To join the long dance round the curve of the world.
The bitter salt spindrift, the sun-glare likewise,
30
The moon-track a-tremble, bewilders our eyes,
Where, linking and lifting, our sisters we hail
’Twixt wrench of cross-surges or plunge of head-gale.
As maidens awaiting the bride to come forth
Make play with light jestings and wit of no worth,
35
So, widdershins circling the bride-bed of death,
Each fleereth her neighbour and signeth and saith:–
‘What see ye? Their signals, or levin afar?
What hear ye? God’s thunder, or guns of our war?
What mark ye? Their smoke, or the cloud-rack outblown?
40
What chase ye? Their lights, or the Daystar low down?’
So, times past all number deceived by false shows,
Deceiving we cumber the road of our foes,
For this is our virtue: to track and betray;
Preparing great battles a sea’s width away.
45
Now peace is at end and our peoples take heart,
For the laws are clean gone that restrainèd our art;
Up and down the near headlands and against the far wind
We are loosed (Oh, be swift!) to the work of our kind!
A School Song
‘Let us now praise famous men’ –
Men of little showing –
For their work continueth,
And their work continueth,
5
Broad and deep continueth,
Greater than their knowing!
Western wind and open surge
Selected Poems Page 11