Verse > Rudyard Kipling > Verse: 1885–1918
NEXT  
CONTENTS · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936).  Verse: 1885–1918.  1922.
 
Prelude
 
(To Departmental Ditties)

I HAVE eaten your bread and salt.
  I have drunk your water and wine.
The deaths ye died I have watched beside,
  And the lives ye led were mine.
 
Was there aught that I did not share        5
  In vigil or toil or ease,—
One joy or woe that I did not know,
  Dear hearts across the seas?
 
I have written the tale of our life
  For a sheltered people’s mirth,        10
In jesting guise—but ye are wise,
  And ye know what the jest is worth.
 
 
CONTENTS · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
NEXT  
 
Loading
Click here to shop the Bartleby Bookstore.
Shakespeare · Bible · Saints · Anatomy · Harvard Classics · Lit. History · Quotations · Poetry
© 1993–2013 Bartleby.com · [Top 150]