The Years Between E-Book

Rudyard Kipling

• Herausgeber: Seltzer Books
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Seitenzahl: 71

Beschreibung

Verse written during and about World War I. According to Wikipedia: "Joseph Rudyard Kipling (1865 – 1936) was an English author and poet. Born in Bombay, British India (now Mumbai), he is best known for his works The Jungle Book (1894) and Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (1902), his novel, Kim (1901); his poems, including Mandalay (1890), Gunga Din (1890), If— (1910); and his many short stories, including The Man Who Would Be King (1888). He is regarded as a major "innovator in the art of the short story"; his children's books are enduring classics of children's literature; and his best works speak to a versatile and luminous narrative gift. Kipling was one of the most popular writers in English, in both prose and verse, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.[2] The author Henry James said of him: "Kipling strikes me personally as the most complete man of genius (as distinct from fine intelligence) that I have ever known." In 1907, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, making him the first English language writer to receive the prize, and to date he remains its youngest recipient. Among other honours, he was sounded out for the British Poet Laureateship and on several occasions for a knighthood, all of which he declined."

Leseprobe

THE YEARS BETWEEN BY RUDYARD KIPLING

published by Samizdat Express, Orange, CT, USA

established in 1974, offering over 14,000  books

Books by Rudyard Kipling available from us:

Actions and Reactions

American Notes

Departmental Ditties and Ballads

Captains Courageous

The Day's Work

A Diversity of Creatures

France at War

Indian Tales

The Jungle Book

Just So Stories

Kim

Letters of Travel

Life's Handicap, Being Stories of Mine Own People

The Light that Failed

The Man Who Would Be King

Plain Tales from the Hills

Puck of Pook's Hill

Rewards and Fairies

Sea Warfare

The Second Jungle Book

Soldiers Three

Songs from Books

Stalky and Company

The Story of the Gadsby

Traffics and Discoveries

Under the Deodars

Verses

The Years Between

feedback welcome: [email protected]

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First published by:

Methuen and Co. Ltd.

36 Essex Street W.C.

London

First Published in 1919

DEDICATION -- TO THE SEVEN WATCHMEN

THE ROWERS

THE VETERANS

THE DECLARATION OF LONDON

ULSTER

THE COVENANT

FRANCE

'FOR ALL WE HAVE AND ARE'

A SONG IN STORM

THE OUTLAWS

ZION

LORD ROBERTS

THE QUESTION

THE CHOICE

THE HOLY WAR

THE HOUSES

RUSSIA TO THE PACIFISTS

THE IRISH GUARDS

A NATIVITY

EN-DOR

A RECANTATION

MY BOY JACK

THE VERDICTS

MESOPOTAMIA

THE HYAENAS

THE SPIES' MARCH

THE SONS OF MARTHA

MARY'S SON

THE SONG OF THE LATHES

GETHSEMANE

THE PRO-CONSULS

THE CRAFTSMAN

THINGS AND THE MAN

THE BENEFACTORS

THE DEAD KING

A DEATH-BED

GEHAZI

THE VIRGINITY

A PILGRIM'S WAY

THE OLDEST SONG

NATURAL THEOLOGY

A SONG AT COCK-CROW

THE FEMALE OF THE SPECIES

EPITAPHS

'THE CITY OF BRASS'

JUSTICE

DEDICATION -- TO THE SEVEN WATCHMEN

    Seven Watchmen sitting in a tower,

      Watching what had come upon mankind,

    Showed the Man the Glory and the Power,

      And bade him shape the Kingdom to his mind.

    'All things on Earth your will shall win you'

      ('Twas so their counsel ran)

    'But the Kingdom--the Kingdom is within you,'

      Said the Man's own mind to the Man.

        For time, and some time--

    As it was in the bitter years before,

      So it shall be in the over-sweetened hour--

    That a man's mind is wont to tell him more

      Than Seven Watchmen sitting in a tower.

 THE ROWERS

1902

(When Germany proposed that England should help her in a navaldemonstration to collect debts from Venezuela.)

    The banked oars fell an hundred strong,

      And backed and threshed and ground,

    But bitter was the rowers' song

      As they brought the war-boat round.

    They had no heart for the rally and roar

      That makes the whale-bath smoke--

    When the great blades cleave and hold and leave

      As one on the racing stroke.

    They sang:--'What reckoning do you keep,

      And steer her by what star,

    If we come unscathed from the Southern deep

       To be wrecked on a Baltic bar?

    'Last night you swore our voyage was done,

      But seaward still we go,

    And you tell us now of a secret vow

      You have made with an open foe!

    'That we must lie off a lightless coast

      And haul and back and veer,

    At the will of the breed that have wronged us most

      For a year and a year and a year!

    'There was never a shame in Christendie

      They laid not to our door--

    And you say we must take the winter sea

      And sail with them once more?

    'Look South! The gale is scarce o'erpast

      That stripped and laid us down,

    When we stood forth but they stood fast

      And prayed to see us drown

    'Our dead they mocked are scarcely cold,

      Our wounds are bleeding yet--

    And you tell us now that our strength is sold

      To help them press for a debt'

    ''Neath all the flags of all mankind

      That use upon the seas,

    Was there no other fleet to find

      That you strike hands with these?

    'Of evil times that men can choose

      On evil fate to fall,

    What brooding Judgment let you loose

      To pick the worst of all?

    'In sight of peace--from the Narrow Seas

      O'er half the world to run--

    With a cheated crew, to league anew

      With the Goth and the shameless Hun!'

THE VETERANS

[Written for the gathering of survivors of the Indian Mutiny, Albert

Hall, 1907.]

    To-day, across our fathers' graves,

      The astonished years reveal

    The remnant of that desperate host

      Which cleansed our East with steel.

    Hail and farewell! We greet you here,

      With tears that none will scorn--

    O Keepers of the House of old,

      Or ever we were born!

    One service more we dare to ask--

      Pray for us, heroes, pray,

    That when Fate lays on us our task

      We do not shame the Day!

THE DECLARATION OF LONDON

JUNE 29, 1911

('On the re-assembling of Parliament after the Coronation, the

Government have no intention of allowing their followers to vote

according to their convictions on the Declaration of London, but

insist on a strictly party vote'--Daily Papers.)

    We were all one heart and one race

      When the Abbey trumpets blew.

    For a moment's breathing-space

      We had forgotten you

    Now you return to your honoured place

      Panting to shame us anew.

    We have walked with the Ages dead--

      With our Past alive and ablaze,

    And you bid us pawn our honour for bread;

      This day of all the days!

    And you cannot wait till our guests are sped,

      Or last week's wreath decays?

    The light is still in our eyes

      Of Faith and Gentlehood,

    Of Service and Sacrifice,

      And it does not match our mood,

    To turn so soon to your treacheries

      That starve our land of her food.

    Our ears still carry the sound

      Of our once Imperial seas,

    Exultant after our King was crowned,

      Beneath the sun and the breeze.

    It is too early to have them bound

      Or sold at your decrees.

    Wait till the memory goes,

      Wait till the visions fade,

    We may betray in time, God knows,

      But we would not have it said,

    When you make report to our scornful foes,

      That we kissed as we betrayed!

ULSTER

1912

('Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover

themselves with their works; their works are works of iniquity,

and the act of violence is in their hands.'--Isaiah lix 6)

    The dark eleventh hour

    Draws on and sees us sold

    To every evil power

    We fought against of old.

    Rebellion, rapine, hate,

    Oppression, wrong and greed

    Are loosed to rule our fate,

    By England's act and deed.

    The Faith in which we stand,

    The laws we made and guard,

    Our honour, lives, and land

    Are given for reward

    To Murder done by night,

    To Treason taught by day,

    To folly, sloth, and spite,

    And we are thrust away.

    The blood our fathers spilt,

    Our love, our toils, our pains,

    Are counted us for guilt,

    And only bind our chains.

    Before an Empire's eyes

    The traitor claims his price.

    What need of further lies?

    We are the sacrifice.

    We asked no more than leave

    To reap where we had sown,

    Through good and ill to cleave

    To our own flag and throne.

    Now England's shot and steel

    Beneath that flag must show

    How loyal hearts should kneel

    To England's oldest foe.

    We know the war prepared

    On every peaceful home,

    We know the hells declared

    For such as serve not Rome--

    The terror, threats, and dread

    In market, hearth, and field--

    We know, when all is said,

    We perish if we yield.

    Believe, we dare not boast,

    Believe, we do not fear--

    We stand to pay the cost

    In all that men hold dear.

    What answer from the North?

    One Law, one Land, one Throne.

    If England drive us forth

    We shall not fall alone.

THE COVENANT

1914

    We thought we ranked above the chance of ill.

      Others might fall, not we, for we were wise--

    Merchants in freedom. So, of our free-will

      We let our servants drug our strength with lies.

    The pleasure and the poison had its way

      On us as on the meanest, till we learned