Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/713

 INCLUSIVE EDITION, 1885-1918 695

Now horn and pelt our peoples melt

In covert to abide; Now, crouched and still, to cave and hill

Our Jungle Barons glide. Now, stark and plain, Man's oxen strain,

That draw the new-yoked plough; Now, stripped and dread, the dawn is red

Above the lit talao. 1

Ho! Get to lair! The sun's aflare

Behind the breathing grass: And creaking through the young bamboo

The warning whispers pass. By day made strange, the woods we range

With blinking eyes we scan; While down the skies the wild duck cries:

" The Day the Day to Man ! "

The dew is dried that drenched our hide,

Or washed about our way; And where we drank, the puddled bank

Is crisping into clay. The traitor Dark gives up each mark

Of stretched or hooded claw; Then hear the Call: "Good rest to all

That keep the Jungle Law !"

BLUE ROSES

DOSES red and roses white

Plucked I for my love's delight. She would none of all my posies Bade me gather her blue roses. 1 Pond or lake.