Songs from Books. Rudyard Kipling

Spring to pass along here!

      Tell old Winter, if he doubt,

      Tell him squat and square – a!

      Old Woman!

      Old Woman!

      Old Woman's let the Cuckoo out

      At Heffle Cuckoo Fair – a!

      March has searched and April tried —

      'Tisn't long to May now,

      Not so far to Whitsuntide,

      And Cuckoo's come to stay now!

      Hear the valiant fellow shout

      Down the orchard bare – a!

      Old Woman!

      Old Woman!

      Old Woman's let the Cuckoo out

      At Heffle Cuckoo Fair – a!

      When your heart is young and gay

      And the season rules it —

      Work your works and play your play

      'Fore the Autumn cools it!

      Kiss you turn and turn about,

      But my lad, beware – a!

      Old Woman!

      Old Woman!

      Old Woman's let the Cuckoo out

      At Heffle Cuckoo Fair – a!

      A CHARM

      Take of English earth as much

      As either hand may rightly clutch.

      In the taking of it breathe

      Prayer for all who lie beneath.

      Not the great nor well-bespoke,

      But the mere uncounted folk

      Of whose life and death is none

      Report or lamentation.

        Lay that earth upon thy heart,

        And thy sickness shall depart!

      It shall sweeten and make whole

      Fevered breath and festered soul.

      It shall mightily restrain

      Over-busy hand and brain.

      It shall ease thy mortal strife

      'Gainst the immortal woe of life,

      Till thyself restored shall prove

      By what grace the Heavens do move.

      Take of English flowers these —

      Spring's full-facèd primroses,

      Summer's wild wide-hearted rose,

      Autumn's wall-flower of the close,

      And, thy darkness to illume,

      Winter's bee-thronged ivy-bloom.

      Seek and serve them where they bide

      From Candlemas to Christmas-tide,

        For these simples, used aright,

        Can restore a failing sight.

      These shall cleanse and purify

      Webbed and inward-turning eye;

      These shall show thee treasure hid,

      Thy familiar fields amid;

      And reveal (which is thy need)

      Every man a King indeed!

      THE PRAIRIE

      'I see the grass shake in the sun for leagues on either hand,

      I see a river loop and run about a treeless land —

      An empty plain, a steely pond, a distance diamond-clear,

      And low blue naked hills beyond. And what is that to fear?'

      'Go softly by that river-side or, when you would depart,

      You'll find its every winding tied and knotted round your heart.

      Be wary as the seasons pass, or you may ne'er outrun

      The wind that sets that yellowed grass a-shiver 'neath the Sun.'

      'I hear the summer storm outblown – the drip of the grateful wheat.

      I hear the hard trail telephone a far-off horse's feet.

      I hear the horns of Autumn blow to the wild-fowl overhead;

      And I hear the hush before the snow. And what is that to dread?'

      'Take heed what spell the lightning weaves – what charm the echoes shape —

      Or, bound among a million sheaves, your soul may not escape.

      Bar home the door of summer nights lest those high planets drown

      The memory of near delights in all the longed-for town.'

      'What need have I to long or fear? Now, friendly, I behold

      My faithful seasons robe the year in silver and in gold.

      Now I possess and am possessed of the land where I would be,

      And the curve of half Earth's generous breast shall soothe and ravish me!'

      CHAPTER HEADINGS

PLAIN TALES FROM THE HILLS

      Look, you have cast out Love! What Gods are these

      You bid me please?

      The Three in One, the One in Three? Not so!

      To my own Gods I go.

      It may be they shall give me greater ease

      Than your cold Christ and tangled Trinities.

      Lispeth.

      When the Earth was sick and the Skies were grey,

      And the woods were rotted with rain,

      The Dead Man rode through the autumn day

      To visit his love again.

      His love she neither saw nor heard,

      So heavy was her shame;

      And tho' the babe within her stirred

      She knew not that he came.

      The Other Man.

      Cry 'Murder' in the market-place, and each

      Will turn upon his neighbour anxious eyes

      Asking; – 'Art thou the man?' We hunted Cain

      Some centuries ago across the world.

      This bred the fear our own misdeeds maintain

      To-day.

      His Wedded Wife.

      Go, stalk the red deer o'er the heather,

      Ride, follow the fox if you can!

      But, for pleasure and profit together,

      Allow me the hunting of Man —

      The chase of the Human, the search for the Soul

      To its ruin – the hunting of Man.

      Pig.

      'Stopped in the straight when the race was his own!

      Look at him cutting it – cur to the bone!'

      Ask ere the youngster be rated and chidden

      What did he carry and how was he ridden?

      Maybe they used him too much at the start;

      Maybe Fate's weight-cloths are breaking his heart.

      In