Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/659

 INCLUSIVE EDITION, 1885-1918 641

And burrowed in earth and fell, And bided a season below, For reason that none might know, Save only Israel.

He is Lord of the Last

The Fifth, most wonderful, Flood.

He hears Her thunder past

And Her Song is in his blood.

He can foresay: "She w ; ll fall,"

For he knows which fountain dries

Behind which desert-belt

A thousand leagues to the South.

He can foresay: "She will rise."

He knows what far snows melt:

Along what mountain-wall

A thousand leagues to the North.

He snuffs the coming drouth

As he snuffs the coming rain,

He knows what each will bring forth,

And turns it to his gain.

A Ruler without a Throne,

A Prince without a Sword,

Israel follows his quest.

In every land a guest,

Of many lands a lord,

In no land King is he.

But the Fifth Great River keeps

The secret of Her deeps

For Israel alone,

As it was ordered to be.