Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/623

 INCLUSIVE EDITION, 1885-1918 605

There was a strife 'twixt man and maid Oh that was at the birth of time! But what befell 'twixt man and maid, Oh that's beyond the grip of rhyme. 'Twas, "Sweet, I must not bide with you," And "Love, I cannot bide alone"; For both were young and both were true, And both were hard as the nether stone.

There is pleasure in the wet, wet clay,

When the artist's hand is potting it;

There is pleasure in the wet, wet lay;

When the poet's pad is blotting it;

There is pleasure in the shine of your picture on the line

At the Royal Acade-my;

But the pleasure felt in these is as chalk to Cheddar cheese

W 7 hen it comes to a well-made Lie.

To a quite unwreckable Lie,

To a most impeccable Lie!

To a water-tight, fire-proof, angle-iron, sunk-hinge, time-lock,

steel-faced Lie! Not a private hansom Lie, But a pair-and-brougham Lie, Not a little-place-at-Tooting, but a country-house-with-

shooting And a ring-fence-deer-park Lie.

We be the Gods of the East

Older than all- Masters of Mourning and Feast

How shall we fall?