Kotri By The River

At Kotri, by the river, when the evening’s sun is low,

The waving palm trees quiver, the golden waters glow,

The shining ripples shiver, descending to the sea;

At Kotri, by the river, she used to wait for me.

So young, she was, and slender, so pale with wistful eyes

As luminous and tender as Kotri’s twilight skies.

Her face broke into flowers, red flowers at the mouth,

Her voice,–she sang for hours like bulbuls in the south.

We sat beside the water through burning summer days,

And many things I taught her of Life and all its ways

Of Love, man’s loveliest duty, of Passion’s reckless pain,

Of Youth, whose transient beauty comes once, but not again.

She lay and laughed and listened beside the water’s edge.

The glancing rirer glistened and glinted through the sedge.

Green parrots flew above her and, as the daylight died,

Her young arms drew her lover more closely to her side.

Oh days so warm and golden! oh nights so cool and still!

When Love would not be holden, and Pleasure had his will.

Days, when in after leisure, content to rest we lay,

Nights, when her lips’ soft pressure drained all my life away.

And while we sat together, beneath the Babul trees,

The fragrant, sultry weather cooled by the river breeze,

If passion faltered ever, and left the senses free,

We heard the tireless river decending to the sea.

I know not where she wandered, or went in after days,

Or if her youth she squandered in Love’s more doubtful ways.

Perhaps, beside the river, she died, still young and fair;

Perchance the grasses quiver above her slumber there.

At Kotri, by the river, maybe I too shall sleep

The sleep that lasts for ever, too deep for dreams; too deep.

Maybe among the shingle and sand of floods to be

Her dust and mine may mingle and float away to sea.

Ah Kotri, by the river, when evening’s sun is low,

Your faint reflections quiver, your golden ripples glow.

You knew, oh Kotri river, that love which could not last.

For me your palms still shiver with passions of the past.

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• Lord Roberts by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Loot by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Lichtenberg by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• L’Envoi by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• La Nuit Blanche by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Kitchener’s School by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Kim by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Justice by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Jubal and Tubal Cain by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• In the Neolithic Age by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• In the Matter of One Compass by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• In Springtime by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• If by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• I Keep Six Honest… by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Hymn Before Action by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Hunting-Song of the Seeonee Pack by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Helen all Alone by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Harp Song of the Dane Women by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Half-Ballad of Waterval by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Gunga Din by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling

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