Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/733

 INCLUSIVE EDITION, 1885-1918 715

"That being rich in the open, we should be strong in the

close "And the Gods would sell us a cunning for the day that we

met our foes. "This was the work of wizards, but not with our foe they

bide, "In our own camp we took them, and their names are Sloth

and Pride. "Our pride was before the battle: our sloth ere we lifted

spear, " But hid in the heart of the people as the fever hides in the

mere,

"Waiting only the war-game, the heat of the strife to rise "As the ague fumes round Oxeney when the rotting reed-bed

dries. "But now we are purged of that fever cleansed by the

letting of blood,

"Something leaner of body something keener of mood. "And the men new-freed from the levies return to the fields

again,

"Matching a hundred battles, cottar and lord and thane. "And they talk loud in the temples where the ancient war- gods are. "They thumb and mock and belittle the holy harness of

war. "They jest at the sacred chariots, the robes and the gilded

staff. "These things fill them with laughter, they lean on their

spears and laugh. "The men grown old in the war-game, hither and thither they

range "And scorn and laughter together are sire and dam of

change; "And change may be good or evil but we know not what it

will bring "Therefore our King must teach us. That is thy task, O

King!"