Common Form
If any questions
why we died,
Tell them,
because our fathers lied.
poem by Rudyard Kipling
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To the City of Bombay
Mother of Cities to me,
For I was born in her gate,
Between the palms and the sea,
Where the world-end steamers wait.
poem by Rudyard Kipling from Seven Seas (1894)
Added by Dan Costinaş
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A Son
My son was killed while laughing at some jest, I would
I knew
What it was and it might serve me in a time when jests
are few.
poem by Rudyard Kipling
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The Undertakers
When ye say to Tabaqui, "My Brother!" when ye call the Hyena
to meat,
Ye may cry the Full Truce with Jacala - the Belly that runs on
four feet.
poem by Rudyard Kipling
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How the Rhinoceros got His Skin
This Uninhabited Island
Is near Cape Gardafui;
But it's hot--too hot--of Suez
For the likes of you and me
Ever to go in a P. & O.
To call on the Cake Parsee.
poem by Rudyard Kipling
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Sepulchral
From the Greek Anthologies
Swifter than aught 'neath the sun the car of Simonides moved
him.
Two things he could not out-run--Death and a Woman who
loved him.
poem by Rudyard Kipling
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The Braggart
Mat. Prior
Petrolio, vaunting his Mercedes' power,
Vows she can cover eighty miles an hour.
I tried the car of old and know she can.
But dare he ever make her? Ask his man!
poem by Rudyard Kipling
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False Dawn
To-night, God knows what thing shall tide,
The Earth is racked and fain--
Expectant, sleepless, open-eyed;
And we, who from the Earth were made,
Thrill with our Mother's pain.
poem by Rudyard Kipling
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The King's Ankus
These are the Four that are never content, that have never be
filled since the Dews began--
Jacala's mouth, and the glut of the Kite, and the hands of the
Ape, and the Eyes of Man.
poem by Rudyard Kipling
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Tod's Amendment
The World hath set its heavy yoke
Upon the old white-bearded folk
Who strive to please the King.
God's mercy is upon the young,
God's wisdom in the baby tongue
That fears not anything.
poem by Rudyard Kipling
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