Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/652

 6 34 RUDYARD KIPLING'S VERSE

Dear-bought and clear, a thousand year,

Our fathers' title runs. Make we likewise their sacrifice,

Defrauding not our sons.

CHAPTER HEADINGS BEAST AND MAN IN INDIA

'jpHEY killed a child to please the Gods

In earth's young penitence, And I have bled in that Babe's stead Because of innocence.

I bear the sins of sinful men

That have no sin of my own,

They drive me forth to Heaven's wrath

Unpastured and alone.

I am the meat of sacrifice,

The ransom of man's guilt,

For they give my life to the altar-knife

Wherever shrine is built.

The Goat.

Between the waving tufts of jungle-grass, Up from the river as the twilight falls, Across the dust-beclouded plain they pass On to the village walls.

Great is the sword and mighty is the pen, But over all the labouring ploughman's blade- For on its oxen and its husbandmen An Empire's strength is laid.

The Oxen.