228
RUDYARD KIPLING'S VERSE
It was wicked bad campaigning (cheap and nasty from the
first),
There was heat and dust and coolie-work and sun,
There were vipers, flies, and sandstorms, there was cholera
and thirst,
But Pharaoh done the best he ever done.
Down the desert, down the railway, down the river,
Like Israelites from bondage so he came,
'Tween the clouds o' dust and fire to the land of his
desire,
And his Moses, it was Sergeant Whatisname!
first),
There was heat and dust and coolie-work and sun,
There were vipers, flies, and sandstorms, there was cholera
and thirst,
But Pharaoh done the best he ever done.
Down the desert, down the railway, down the river,
Like Israelites from bondage so he came,
'Tween the clouds o' dust and fire to the land of his
desire,
And his Moses, it was Sergeant Whatisname!
We are eating dirt in handfuls for to save our daily bread,
Which we have to buy from those that hate us most,
And we must not raise the money where the Sergeant raised the dead,
And it's wrong and bad and dangerous to boast.
But he did it on the cheap and on the quiet,
And he's not allowed to forward any claim—
Though he drilled a black man white, though he made a
mummy fight,
He will still continue Sergeant Whatisname—
Private, Corporal, Colour-Sergeant, and Instructor—
But the everlasting miracle's the same!
Which we have to buy from those that hate us most,
And we must not raise the money where the Sergeant raised the dead,
And it's wrong and bad and dangerous to boast.
But he did it on the cheap and on the quiet,
And he's not allowed to forward any claim—
Though he drilled a black man white, though he made a
mummy fight,
He will still continue Sergeant Whatisname—
Private, Corporal, Colour-Sergeant, and Instructor—
But the everlasting miracle's the same!
The Last of the Light Brigade
1891
There were thirty million English who talked of England's might,
There were twenty broken troopers who lacked a bed for the
night.
There were twenty broken troopers who lacked a bed for the
night.
