| Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936). Verse: 1885–1918. 1922. | | | | The Comforters |
| | | UNTIL thy feet have trod the Road | |
| Advise not wayside folk, | |
| Nor till thy back has borne the Load | |
| Break in upon the broke. | |
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| Chase not with undesired largesse | 5 |
| Of sympathy the heart | |
| Which, knowing her own bitterness, | |
| Presumes to dwell apart. | |
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| Employ not that glad hand to raise | |
| The God-forgotten head | 10 |
| To Heaven, and all the neighbours’ gaze— | |
| Cover thy mouth instead. | |
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| The quivering chin, the bitten lip, | |
| The cold and sweating brow, | |
| Later may yearn for fellowship— | 15 |
| Not now, you ass, not now! | |
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| Time, not thy ne’er so timely speech, | |
| Life, not thy views thereon, | |
| Shall furnish or deny to each | |
| His consolation. | 20 |
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| Or, if impelled to interfere, | |
| Exhort, uplift, advise, | |
| Lend not a base, betraying ear | |
| To all the victim’s cries. | |
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| Only the Lord can understand | 25 |
| When those first pangs begin, | |
| How much is reflex action and | |
| How much is really sin. | |
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| E’en from good words thyself refrain, | |
| And tremblingly admit | 30 |
| There is no anodyne for pain | |
| Except the shock of it. | |
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| So, when thine own dark hour shall fall, | |
| Unchallenged canst thou say: | |
| “I never worried you at all, | 35 |
| For God’s sake go away!” | | | | |
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