Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/385

 With great things charged he shall not hold

Aloof till great occasion rise,

But serve, full-harnessed, as of old,

The Days that are the Destinies.

He shall forswear and put away

The idols of his sheltered house;

And to Necessity shall pay

Unflinching tribute of his vows.

He shall not plead another's act,

Nor bind him in another's oath

To weigh the Word above the Fact,

Or make or take excuse for sloth.

The yoke he bore shall press him still,

And, long-ingrained effort goad

To find, to fashion, and fulfil

The cleaner life, the sterner code.

Not in the camp his victory lies—

The world (unheeding his return)

Shall see it in his children's eyes

And from his grandson's lips shall learn!



1914

thought we ranked above the chance of ill.

Others might fall, not we, for we were wise—

Merchants in freedom. So, of our free-will

We let our servants drug our strength with lies. 