| Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936). Verse: 1885–1918. 1922. | | | | The Rabbi’s Song |
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IF thought can reach to Heaven, | |
| On Heaven let it dwell, | |
| For fear thy Thought be given | |
| Like power to reach to Hell. | |
| For fear the desolation | 5 |
| And darkness of thy mind | |
| Perplex an habitation | |
| Which thou hast left behind. | |
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| Let nothing linger after— | |
| No whimpering ghost remain, | 10 |
| In wall, or beam, or rafter, | |
| Of any hate or pain. | |
| Cleanse and call home thy spirit, | |
| Deny her leave to cast, | |
| On aught thy heirs inherit, | 15 |
| The shadow of her past. | |
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| For think, in all thy sadness, | |
| What road our griefs may take; | |
| Whose brain reflect our madness, | |
| Or whom our terrors shake: | 20 |
| For think, lest any languish | |
| By cause of thy distress— | |
| The arrows of our anguish | |
| Fly farther than we guess. | |
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| Our lives, our tears, as water, | 25 |
| Are spilled upon the ground; | |
| God giveth no man quarter, | |
| Yet God a means hath found, | |
| Though faith and hope have vanished, | |
| And even love grows dim— | 30 |
| A means whereby His banished | |
| Be not expelled from Him! | | | | |
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