| Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936). Verse: 1885–1918. 1922. | | | | L’Envoi |
| | (Departmental Ditties)
THE SMOKE upon your Altar dies, | |
| The flowers decay, | |
| The Goddess of your sacrifice | |
| Has flown away. | |
| What profit then to sing or slay | 5 |
| The sacrifice from day to day? | |
| |
| “We know the Shrine is void,” they said, | |
| “The Goddess flown— | |
| “Yet wreaths are on the altar laid— | |
| “The Altar-Stone | 10 |
| “Is black with fumes of sacrifice, | |
| “Albeit She has fled our eyes. | |
| |
| “For, it may be, if still we sing | |
| “And tend the Shrine, | |
| “Some Deity on wandering wing | 15 |
| “May there incline; | |
| “And, finding all in order meet, | |
| “Stay while we worship at Her feet.” | | | | |
|
|
