Before a Midnight Breaks in Storm by Rudyard Kipling
1903 Before a midnight breaks in storm, Or herded sea in wrath, Ye know what wavering gusts inform The greater tempest’s path? Till the loosed wind Drive all from mind, Except Distress, which, so will prophets cry, O’ercame them, houseless, from the unhinting sky. Ere rivers league against the land In piratry of flood, Ye […]
Beast and Man in India by Rudyard Kipling
Written for John Lockwood Kipling’s They killed a Child to please the Gods In Earth’s young penitence, And I have bled in that Babe’s stead Because of innocence. I bear the sins of sinful men That have no sin of my own, They drive me forth to Heaven’s wrath Unpastured and alone. I am the […]
As the Bell Clinks by Rudyard Kipling
As I left the Halls at Lumley, rose the vision of a comely Maid last season worshipped dumbly, watched with fervor from afar; And I wondered idly, blindly, if the maid would greet me kindly. That was all — the rest was settled by the clinking tonga-bar. Yea, my life and hers were coupled by […]
Army Headquarters by Rudyard Kipling
Ahasuerus Jenkins of the “Operatic Own,” Was dowered with a tenor voice of super-Santley tone. His views on equitation were, perhaps, a trifle queer. He had no seat worth mentioning, but oh! he had an ear. He clubbed his wretched company a dozen times a day; He used to quit his charger in a parabolic […]
Arithmetic on the Frontier by Rudyard Kipling
A great and glorious thing it is To learn, for seven years or so, The Lord knows what of that and this, Ere reckoned fit to face the foe — The flying bullet down the Pass, That whistles clear: “All flesh is grass.” Three hundred pounds per annum spent On making brain and body meeter […]
Anchor Song by Rudyard Kipling
Heh! Walk her round. Heave, ah heave her short again! Over, snatch her over, there, and hold her on the pawl. Loose all sail, and brace your yards back and full — Ready jib to pay her off and heave short all! Well, ah fare you well; we can stay no more with you, my […]
An Old Song by Rudyard Kipling
So long as ‘neath the Kalka hills The tonga-horn shall ring, So long as down the Solon dip The hard-held ponies swing, So long as Tara Devi sees The lights of Simla town, So long as Pleasure calls us up, Or Duty drivese us down, If you love me as I love you What pair […]
An Imperial Rescript by Rudyard Kipling
Now this is the tale of the Council the German Kaiser decreed, To ease the strong of their burden, to help the weak in their need, He sent a word to the peoples, who struggle, and pant, and sweat, That the straw might be counted fairly and the tally of bricks be set. The Lords […]
An Astrologer’s Song by Rudyard Kipling
To the Heavens above us O look and behold The Planets that love us All harnessed in gold! What chariots, what horses Against us shall bide While the Stars in their courses Do fight on our side? All thought, all desires, That are under the sun, Are one with their fires, As we also are […]
An American by Rudyard Kipling
If the Led Striker call it a strike, Or the papers call it a war, They know not much what I am like, Nor what he is, My Avatar. Throuh many roads, by me possessed, He shambles forth in cosmic guise; He is the Jester and the Jest, And he the Text himself applies. The […]
A Truthful Song by Rudyard Kipling
THE BRICKLAYER: I tell this tale, which is strictly true, Just by way of convincing you How very little, since things were made, Things have altered in building trade. A year ago, come the middle of March, We was building flats near the Marble Arch, When a thin young man with coal-black hair Came up […]
A Tree Song by Rudyard Kipling
(A. D. 1200) Of all the trees that grow so fair, Old England to adorn, Greater are none beneath the Sun, Than Oak, and Ash, and Thorn. Sing Oak, and Ash, and Thorn, good sirs, (All of a Midsummer morn!) Surely we sing no little thing, In Oak, and Ash, and Thorn! Oak of the […]
A Three-Part Song by Rudyard Kipling
I’m just in love with all these three, The Weald and the Marsh and the Down country. 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 […]
A Tale of Two Cities by Rudyard Kipling
Where the sober-colored cultivator smiles On his byles; Where the cholera, the cyclone, and the crow Come and go; Where the merchant deals in indigo and tea, Hides and ghi; Where the Babu drops inflammatory hints In his prints; Stands a City — Charnock chose it — packed away Near a Bay — By the […]
A Song of Travel by Rudyard Kipling
Where’s the lamp that Hero lit Once to call Leander home? Equal Time hath shovelled it ‘Neath the wrack of Greece and Rome. Neither wait we any more That worn sail which Argo bore. Dust and dust of ashes close All the Vestal Virgin’s care; And the oldest altar shows But an older darkness there. […]
A Song of the White Men by Rudyard Kipling
1899 Now, this is the cup the White Men drink When they go to right a wrong, And that is the cup of the old world’s hate– Cruel and strained and strong. We have drunk that cup–and a bitter, bitter cup– And tossed the dregs away. But well for the world when the White Men […]
A Song of the English by Rudyard Kipling
Fair is our lot — O goodly is our heritage! (Humble ye, my people, and be fearful in your mirth!) For the Lord our God Most High He hath made the deep as dry, He hath smote for us a pathway to the ends of all the Earth! Yea, though we sinned — and our […]
A Song of Kabir by Rudyard Kipling
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 […]
A Song In Storm by Rudyard Kipling
Be well assured that on our side The abiding oceans fight, Though headlong wind and heaping tide Make us their sport to-night. By force of weather, not of war, In jeopardy we steer. Then welcome Fate’s discourtesy Whereby it shall appear How in all time of our distress, And our deliverance too, The game is […]
A Song at Cock-Crow by Rudyard Kipling
The first time that Peter denied his Lord He shrank from the cudgel, the scourge and the cord, But followed far off to see what they would do, Till the cock crew–till the cock crew– After Gethsemane, till the cock crew! The first time that Peter denied his Lord ‘Twas only a maid in the […]
A Smuggler’s Song by Rudyard Kipling
If you wake at midnight, and hear a horse’s feet, Don’t go drawing back the blind, or looking in the street. Them that ask no questions isn’t told a lie. Watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by! Five and twenty ponies, Trotting through the dark — Brandy for the Parson, ‘Baccy for […]
A Ripple Song by Rudyard Kipling
Once red ripple came to land In the golden sunset burning– Lapped against a maiden’s hand, By the ford returning. Dainty foot and gentle breast– Here, across, be glad and rest. “Maiden, wait,” the ripplee saith; “Wait awhile, for I am Death!” “Where my lover calls I go– Shame it were to treat him coldly– […]
A Recantation by Rudyard Kipling
1917 (To Lyde of the Music Halls) What boots it on the Gods to call? Since, answered or unheard, We perish with the Gods and all Things made–except the Word. Ere certain Fate had touched a heart By fifty years made cold, I judged thee, Lyde, and thy art O’erblown and over-bold. But he–but he, […]
A Pict Song by Rudyard Kipling
Rome never looks where she treads. Always her heavy hooves fall On our stomachs, our hearts or our heads; And Rome never heeds when we bawl. Her sentries pass on–that is all, And we gather behind them in hordes, And plot to reconquer the Wall, With only our tongues for our swords. We are the […]
A Nativity by Rudyard Kipling
1914-18 The Babe was laid in the Manger Between the gentle kine — All safe from cold and danger — “But it was not so with mine, (With mine! With mine!) “Is it well with the child, is it well?” The waiting mother prayed. “For I know not how he fell, And I know not […]
A General Summary by Rudyard Kipling
We are very slightly changed From the semi-apes who ranged India’s Prehistoric clay; He that drew the longest bow Ran his brother down, you know, As we run men down to-tday. “Dowb,” the first of all his race, Met the Mammoth face to face On the lake or in the cave: Stole the steadiest canoe, […]
A Code of Morals by Rudyard Kipling
Now Jones had left his new-wed bride to keep his house in order, And hied away to the Hurrum Hills above the Afghan border, To sit on a rock with a heliograph; but ere he left he taught His wife the working of the Code that sets the miles at naught. And Love had made […]
A Charm by Rudyard Kipling
Take of English earth as much As either hand may rightly clutch. In the taking of it breathe Prayer for all who lie beneath. Not the great nor well-bespoke, But the mere uncounted folk Of whose life and death is none Report or lamentation. Lay that earth upon thy heart, And thy sickness shall depart! […]
A Carol by Rudyard Kipling
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 […]
You Personify God’s Message by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
You personify God’s message. You reflect the King’s face. There is nothing in the universe that you are not Everything you want, look for it within yourself- you are that. ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic and subject. Poetry Monster — the ultimate repository of […]
Who Says Words With My Mouth? by Rumi
Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing? I have no idea. My soul is from elsewhere, I’m sure of that, and I intend to end up there. This drunkenness began in some other tavern. When I get back around to that place, I’ll be completely sober. Meanwhile, I’m like […]
Who is at my door? by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
He said, “Who is at my door?” I said, “Your humble servant.” He said, “What business do you have?” I said, “To greet you, 0 Lord.” He said, “How long will you journey on?” I said, “Until you stop me.” He said, “How long will you boil in the fire?” I said, “Until I am […]
When I am asleep and crumbling in the tomb by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
When I am asleep and crumbling in the tomb, should you come to visit me, I will come forth with speed. You are for me the blast of the trumpet and the resurrection, so what shall I do? Dead or living, wherever you are, there am I. Without your lip I am a frozen and […]
What Hidden Sweetness Is There by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
217 What hidden sweetness there is in this emptiness of the belly! Man is surely like a lute, no more and no less; For if, for instance, the belly of the lute becomes full, no lament high or low will arise from that full lute. If your brain and belly are on fire through fasting, […]
Weary not of us, for we are very beautiful by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
Weary not of us, for we are very beautiful; it is out of very jealousy and proper pride that we entered the veil. On the day when we cast of the body’s veil from the soul, you will see that we are the envy of despair of man and the Polestars. Wash your face and […]
We Are As The Flute by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
We are as the flute, and the music in us is from thee; we are as the mountain and the echo in us is from thee. We are as pieces of chess engaged in victory and defeat: our victory and defeat is from thee, O thou whose qualities are comely! Who are we, O Thou […]
Until You’ve Found Pain by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
Until you’ve found pain, you won’t reach the cure Until you’ve given up life, you won’t unite with the supreme soul Until you’ve found fire inside yourself, like the Friend, You won’t reach the spring of life, like Khezr. ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic […]
Two Kinds of Intelligence by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
There are two kinds of intelligence: one acquired, as a child in school memorizes facts and concepts from books and from what the teacher says, collecting information from the traditional sciences as well as from the new sciences. With such intelligence you rise in the world. You get ranked ahead or behind others in regard […]
At the Twilight by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
At the twilight, a moon appeared in the sky; Then it landed on earth to look at me. Like a hawk stealing a bird at the time of prey; That moon stole me and rushed back into the sky. I looked at myself, I did not see me anymore; For in that moon, my body […]
This is Love by Rumi
to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment. First, to let go of live. In the end, to take a step without feet; to regard this world as invisible, and to disregard what appears to be the self. Heart, I said, what a gift it has been to enter this circle of lovers, to […]