War poems
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The Song of the Cities
© Rudyard Kipling
BOMBAY
Royal and Dower-royal, I the Queen
Fronting thy richest sea with richer hands --
A Song at Cock-Crow
© 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!
Soldier, Soldier
© Rudyard Kipling
"Soldier, soldier come from the wars,
Why don't you march with my true love?"
"We're fresh from off the ship an' 'e's maybe give the slip,
An' you'd best go look for a new love."
A Smuggler's Song
© Rudyard Kipling
Running round the woodlump if you chance to find
Little barrels, roped and tarred, all full of brandy-wine,
Don't you shout to come and look, nor use 'em for your play.
Put the brishwood back again -- and they'll be gone next day!
The Settler
© Rudyard Kipling
1903(South African War ended, May, 1902)
Here, where my fresh-turned furrows run,
And the deep soil glistens red,
I will repair the wrong that was done
An Australian Paean1876
© Marcus Clarke
The English air is fresh and fair,
The Irish fields are green;
Nathan The Wise - Act IV
© Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
SCENE.--The Cloister of a Convent.
The FRIAR alone.
An Ode In Time Of Inauguration
© Franklin Pierce Adams
G.W., initial prex,
Right down in Wall Street, New York City,
Took his first oath. Oh, multiplex
The whimsies quaint, the comments witty
One might evolve from that! I scorn
To mock the spot where he was sworn.
The Sergeant's Weddin'
© Rudyard Kipling
'E was warned agin' 'er --
That's what made 'im look;
She was warned agin' 'im --
That is why she took.
The Second Voyage
© Rudyard Kipling
We've sent our little Cupids all ashore --
They were frightened, they were tired, they were cold:
Our sails of silk and purple go to store,
And we've cut away our mast of beaten gold
The Sea-Wife
© Rudyard Kipling
There dwells a wife by the Northern Gate,
And a wealthy wife is she;
She breeds a breed o' rovin' men
And casts them over sea.
Sinne's Round
© George Herbert
Sorrie I am, my God, sorrie I am,
That my offences course it in a ring.
My thoughts are working like a busie flame,
Untill their cockatrice they hatch and bring:
And when they once have perfected their draughts,
My words take fire from my inflamed thoughts.
Russia To The Pacifists
© Rudyard Kipling
1918
God rest you, peaceful gentlemen, let nothing you dismay,
But--leave your sports a little while--the dead are borne
this way!
Rimmon
© Rudyard Kipling
Duly with knees that feign to quake--
Bent head and shaded brow,--
Yet once again, for my father's sake,
In Rimmon's House I bow.
The Rhyme of the Three Captains
© Rudyard Kipling
This ballad appears to refer to one of the exploits of the notorious
Paul Jones, the American pirate. It is founded on fact.
The Worlds Greatest Smoke Off
© Sheldon Allan Silverstein
Hashishes from Morocco
Hemp smokers from Peru
And the Shashnicks from Bagoon, who smoke the deadly Pugaroo
And those who call it 'Light of Life'
And those that call it 'Boo'
Aubade
© Philip Larkin
I work all day, and get half-drunk at night.
Waking at four to soundless dark, I stare.
Puck's Song
© Rudyard Kipling
See you the ferny ride that steals
Into the oak-woods far?
O that was whence they hewed the keels
That rolled to Trafalgar.
