Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/676

 658 RUDYARD KIPLING'S VERSE

THE RABBI'S SONG

(II Samuel xiv, 14.)

TF THOUGHT can reach to Heaven,

On Heaven let it dwell, For fear thy Thought be given

Like power to reach to Hell. For fear the desolation

And darkness of thy mind Perplex an habitation

Which thou hast left behind.

Let nothing linger after

No whimpering ghost remain, In wall, or beam, or rafter,

Of any hate or pain. Cleanse and call home thy spirit,

Deny her leave to cast, On aught thy heirs inherit,

The shadow of her past.

For think, in all thy sadness,

What road our griefs may take; Whose brain reflect our madness,

Or whom our terrors shake : For think, lest any languish

By cause of thy distress The arrows of our anguish

Fly farther than we guess.

Our lives, our tears, as water,

Are spilled upon the ground; God giveth no man quarter,

Yet God a means hath found, Though faith and hope have vanished,

And even love grows dim A means whereby His banished

Be not expelled from Him !