The Old Men
by Rudyard Kipling
|
This is our lot
if we live so long and labour unto the end― |
That we outlive
the impatient years and the much too patient friend: |
And because we
know we have breath in our mouth and think we have
thoughts in our head, |
We shall assume
that we are alive, whereas we are really dead.
|
We shall not
acknowledge that old stars fade or stronger planets
arise |
(That the sere bush
buds or the desert blooms or the ancient well-head
dries), |
Or any new compass
wherewith new men adventure ’neath new skies,
|
We shall lift up the
ropes that constrained our youth, to bind on our
children’s hands; |
We shall call to the
water below the bridges to return and replenish our
lands; |
We shall harness
horses (Death’s own pale horses) and scholarly plough
the sands.
|
We shall lie down in
the eye of the sun for lack of a light on our way― |
We shall rise up
when the day is done and chirrup, "Behold, it is day!" |
We shall abide till
the battle is won ere we amble into the fray.
|
We shall peck out
and discuss and dissect, and evert and extrude to our
mind, |
The flaccid issues
of long-dead issues offensive to God and mankind― |
(Precisely like
vultures over an ox that the Army has left behind).
|
We shall make walk
preposterous ghosts of the glories we once created― |
Immodesty smearing
from muddled palettes amazing pigments mismated― |
And our friends will
weep when we ask them with boasts if our natural force
be abated.
|
The Lamp of our
Youth will be utterly out, but we shall subsist on the
smell of it; |
And whatever we do,
we shall fold our hands and suck our gums and think well
of it. |
Yes, we shall be
perfectly pleased with our work, and that is the Perfect
Hell of it!
|
This is our lot
is we live so long and listen to those who love us― |
That we are
shunned by the people about and shamed by the Powers
above us. |
Wherefore be free
of your harness; but, being free, be assured. |
That he who hath
not endured to the death, from his birth he hath never
endured!
|
Rudyard
Kipling |
Classic Poems |
|
[ If ] [ The Way Through the Woods ] [ Danny Deever ] [ Recessional ] [ Tommy ] [ The White Man's Burden ] [ Chant-Pagan ] [ The Deep Sea Cables ] [ The Dykes ] [ Gunga Din ] [ The Gods of the Copybook Headings ] [ Fuzzy-Wuzzy ] [ The Land ] [ The Old Men ] [ My Rival ] |