| Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936). Verse: 1885–1918. 1922. | | | | When Earth’s Last Picture Is Painted |
| | 1892
WHEN Earth’s last picture is painted and the tubes are twisted and dried, | |
| When the oldest colours have faded, and the youngest critic has died, | |
| We shall rest, and, faith, we shall need it—lie down for an æon or two, | |
| Till the Master of All Good Workmen shall put us to work anew. | |
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| And those that were good shall be happy: they shall sit in a golden chair; | 5 |
| They shall splash at a ten-league canvas with brushes of comets’ hair. | |
| They shall find real saints to draw from—Magdalene, Peter, and Paul; | |
| They shall work for an age at a sitting and never be tired at all! | |
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| And only the Master shall praise us, and only the Master shall blame; | |
| And no one shall work for money, and no one shall work for fame, | 10 |
| But each for the joy of the working, and each, in his separate star, | |
| Shall draw the Thing as he sees It for the God of Things as They are! | | | | |
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