Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/421

 When your Imp of Blind Desire

Bids you set the Thames afire,

You'll remember men have done so—in the Files.

You'll have seen those flames transpire—in the Files

(More than once that flood has run so—in the Files).

When the Conchimarian horns

Of the reboantic Norns

Usher gentlemen and ladies

With new lights on Heaven and Hades,

Guaranteeing to Eternity

All yesterday's modernity;

When Brocken-spectres made by

Some one's breath on ink parade by,

Very earnest and tremendous,

Let not shows of shows offend us.

When of everything we like we

Shout ecstatic: "Quod ubique,

"Quod ab omnibus means semper!"

Oh, my brother, keep your temper!

Light your pipe and take a look along the Files.

You've a better chance to guess

At the meaning of Success

(Which is Greatness—vide press)

When you've seen it in perspective in the Files.





as he will, no man breaks wholly loose

From his first love, no matter who she be.

Oh, was there ever sailor free to choose,

That didn't settle somewhere near the sea?

Myself, it don't excite me nor amuse

To watch a pack o' shipping on the sea,

But I can understand my neighbour's views

From certain things which have occurred to me.

