| Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936). Verse: 1885–1918. 1922. | | | | The Answer |
| | 1892
A ROSE, in tatters on the garden path, | |
| Cried out to God and murmured ’gainst His Wrath, | |
| Because a sudden wind at twilight’s hush | |
| Had snapped her stem alone of all the bush. | |
| And God, Who hears both sun-dried dust and sun, | 5 |
| Had pity, whispering to that luckless one. | |
| “Sister, in that thou sayest We did not well— | |
| What voices heardst thou when thy petals fell?” | |
| And the Rose answered, “In that evil hour | |
| “A voice said, ‘Father, wherefore falls the flower? | 10 |
| “‘For lo, the very gossamers are still.’ | |
| “And a voice answered, ‘Son, by Allah’s Will!’” | |
| |
| Then softly as a rain-mist on the sward, | |
| Came to the Rose the Answer of the Lord: | |
| “Sister, before We smote the Dark in twain, | 15 |
| “Ere yet the stars saw one another plain, | |
| “Time, Tide, and Space, We bound unto the task | |
| “That thou shouldst fall, and such an one should ask.” | |
| Whereat the withered flower, all content, | |
| Died as they die whose days are innocent; | 20 |
| While he who questioned why the flower fell | |
| Caught hold of God and saved his soul from Hell. | | | | |
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