Past Poetry

‘What are the bugles blowin’ for?’ said Files-on-Parade.‘To turn you out, to turn you out,’ the Colour-Sergeant said.‘What makes you look so white, so white?’ said Files-on-Parade.‘I’m dreadin’ what I’ve got to watch,’ the Colour-Sergeant said.For they’re hangin’ Danny Deever, you can hear the Dead March play,The Regiment’s in ’ollow square—they’re hangin’ him to-day;They’ve taken … Read more

I went into a public-‘ouse to get a pint o’ beer,The publican ‘e up an’ sez, “We serve no red-coats here.”The girls be’ind the bar they laughed an’ giggled fit to die,I outs into the street again an’ to myself sez I: O it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, go away”;But it’s “Thank … Read more

By the old Moulmein Pagoda, lookin’ lazy at the sea,There’s a Burma girl a-settin’, and I know she thinks o’ me;For the wind is in the palm-trees, and the temple-bells they say:“Come you back, you British soldier; come you back to Mandalay!”Come you back to Mandalay,Where the old Flotilla lay:Can’t you ‘ear their paddles chunkin’ … Read more

God of our fathers, known of old,Lord of our far-flung battle-line,Beneath whose awful Hand we holdDominion over palm and pine—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,An humble and a contrite heart.Lord God of Hosts, be … Read more

Take up the White Man’s burden—Send forth the best ye breed—Go bind your sons to exileTo serve your captives’ need;To wait in heavy harnessOn fluttered folk and wild—Your new-caught, sullen peoples,Half devil and half child. Take up the White Man’s burden—In patience to abide,To veil the threat of terrorAnd check the show of pride;By open … Read more

Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God’s great Judgment Seat;But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,When two strong men stand face to face, though they come from the ends of the earth! Kamal is out with … Read more

There’s a pasture in a valley where the hanging woods divide,And a Herd lies down and ruminates in peace;Where the pheasant rules the nooning, and the owl the twilight tide,And the war-cries of our world die out and cease.Here I cast aside the burden that each weary week-day bringsAnd, delivered from the shadows I pursue,On … Read more

THE BRICKLAYER: I tell this tale, which is strictly true,Just by way of convincing youHow 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 hairCame up to watch us working there. Now … Read more

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 Clay lived many a day,Or ever AEneas began.Ash of the … Read more

There are whose study is of smells,And to attentive schools rehearseHow something mixed with something elseMakes something worse. Some cultivate in broths impureThe clients of our body, these,Increasing without Venus, cure,Or cause, disease. Others the heated wheel extol,And all its offspring, whose concernIs how to make it farthest rollAnd fastest turn. Me, much incurious if … Read more