Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/49

Rh And I laughed as I drove from the station, but the mirth died out on my lips

As I thought of the fools like Pagett who write of their "Eastern trips,"

And the sneers of the travelled idiots who duly misgovern the land,

And I prayed to the Lord to deliver another one into my hand.



LA NUIT BLANCHE

HAD seen, as the dawn was breaking

And I staggered to my rest,

Tara Devi softly shaking

From the Cart Road to the crest.

I had seen the spurs of Jakko

Heave and quiver, swell and sink.

Was it Earthquake or tobacco,

Day of Doom, or Night of Drink?

In the full, fresh, fragrant morning

I observed a camel crawl,

Laws of gravitation scorning,

On the ceiling and the wall.

Then I watched a fender walking,

And I heard grey leeches sing,

And a red-hot monkey talking

Did not seem the proper thing.

