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4
RUDYARD KIPLING'S VERSE
A General Summary
We are very slightly changedFrom the semi-apes who ranged India's prehistoric clay;He that drew the longest bowRan his brother down, you know, As we run men down to-day.
"Dowb," the first of all his race,Met the Mammoth face to face On the lake or in the cave:Stole the steadiest canoe,Ate the quarry others slew, Died—and took the finest grave.
When they scratched the reindeer-bone,Some one made the sketch his own, Filched it from the artist—then,Even in those early days,Won a simple Viceroy's praise Through the toil of other men.Ere they hewed the Sphinx's visageFavouritism governed kissage, Even as it does in this age.
Who shall doubt "the secret hidUnder Cheops' pyramid"Was that the contractor did Cheops out of several millions?Or that Joseph's sudden riseTo Comptroller of SuppliesWas a fraud of monstrous size On King Pharaoh's swart Civilians?
