Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/255

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INCLUSIVE EDITION, 1885-1918
237

More than a little lonely
Where the lessening tail-lights shine.
No not combatants only
Details guarding the line!


SOUTH AFRICA

1903

LIVED a woman wonderful,
(May the Lord amend her!)
Neither simple, kind, nor true,
But her Pagan beauty drew
Christian gentlemen a few
Hotly to attend her.

Christian gentlemen a few
From Berwick unto Dover;
For she was South Africa,
And she was South Africa,
She was Our South Africa,
Africa all over!

Half her land was dead with drouth,
Half was red with battle;
She was fenced with fire and sword
Plague on pestilence outpoured,
Locusts on the greening sward
And murrain on the cattle!

True, ah true, and overtrue.
That is why we love her!
For she is South Africa,
And she is South Africa,
She is Our South Africa,
Africa all over!