Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/227

The gates are mine to open,
As the gates are mine to close,
And I set my house in order,"
Said our Lady of the Snows.

"Neither with laughter nor weeping,
Fear or the child's amaze
Soberly under the White Man's law
My white men go their ways.
Not for the Gentiles' clamour
Insult or threat of blows
Bow we the knee to Baal,"
Said our Lady of the Snows.

"My speech is clean and single,
I talk of common things
Words of the wharf and the market-place
And the ware the merchant brings:
Favour to those I favour,
But a stumbling-block to my foes.
Many there be that hate us,"
Said our Lady of the Snows,

"'I called my chiefs to council
In the din of a troubled year;
For the sake of a sign ye would not see,
And a word ye would not hear.
This is our message and answer;
This is the path we chose:
For we be also a people,"
Said our Lady of the Snows.

"Carry the word to my sisters
To the Queens of the East and the South.
I have proven faith in the Heritage
By more than the word of the mouth.