Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/262



OD gave all men all earth to love, But since our hearts are small, Ordained for each one spot should prove Beloved over all; That, as He watched Creation's birth, So we, in godlike mood, May of our love create our earth And see that it is good.

So one shall Baltic pines content, As one some Surrey glade, Or one the palm-grove's droned lament Before Levuka's Trade. Each to his choice, and I rejoice The lot has fallen to me In a fair ground—in a fair ground— Yea, Sussex by the sea!

No tender-hearted garden crowns, No bosomed woods adorn Our blunt, bow-headed, whale-backed Downs, But gnarled and writheh thorn— Bare slopes where chasing shadows skim, And, through the gaps revealed, Belt upon belt, the wooded, dim, Blue goodness of the Weald.

Clean of officious fence or hedge, Half-wild and wholly tame, The wise turf cloaks the white cliff edge As when the Romans came.