Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/228

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210
RUDYARD KIPLING'S VERSE

They that are wise may follow
Ere the world's war-trumpet blows,
But I—I am first in the battle,"
Said our Lady of the Snows.

A Nation spoke to a Nation,,
A Throne sent word to a Throne:
"Daughter am I in my mother's house,
But mistress in my own.
The gates are mine to open,
As the gates are mine to close,
And I abide by my Mother's House,"
Said our Lady of the Snows.


AN AMERICAN

1894

The American Spirit speaks:

IF THE Led Striker call it a strike,
Or the papers call it a war,
They know not much what I am like,
Nor what he is, my Avatar.

Through many roads, by me possessed,
He shambles forth in cosmic guise;
He is the Jester and the Jest,
And he the Text himself applies.

The Celt is in his heart and hand,
The Gaul is in his brain and nerve;
Where, cosmopolitanly planned,
He guards the Redskin's dry reserve