'The true Soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because He loves what is behind him.' -G. K. Chesterton

10 February 2013

Sunday Kipling

It's nasty outside today. A good excuse for staying in and enjoying good company. Lu had a great time yesterday at the range with her mom. Angus is bright eyed and ready for anything. DO and the kids are doing well in sunny Florida. I am content.

May you all have a fine Sunday and a better week. Grab the one you love best and kiss 'em like there's no tomorrow. Throw something tasty on the fire and eat hearty. Drink some fine grog. Count your blessings and be grateful we're all still here to enjoy God's creation together.

Six

A GENERAL SUMMARY

We are very slightly changed
From the semi-apes who ranged
  India's Prehistoric clay;
He that drew the longest bow
Ran his brother down, you know,
  As we run men down to-tday.

"Dowb," the first of all his race,
Met the Mammoth face to face
  On the lake or in the cave:
Stole the steadiest canoe,
Ate the quarry others slew,
  Died -- and took the finest grave.

When they scratched the reindeer-bone,
Some one made the sketch his own,
  Filched it from the artist -- then,
Even in those early days,
Won a simple Viceroy's praise
  Through the toil of other men.
Ere they hewed the Sphinx's visage
Favouritism governed kissage,
  Even as it does in this age.

Who shall doubt "the secret hid
Under Cheops' pyramid"
Was that the contractor did
  Cheops out of several millions?
Or that Joseph's sudden rise
To Comptroller of Supplies
Was a fraud of monstrous size
  On King Pharaoh's swart Civilians?

Thus, the artless songs I sing
Do not deal with anything
  New or never said before.
As it was in the beginning
Is to-day official sinning,
  And shall be for evermore!

4 comments:

Old NFO said...

That one is surely appropriate for this day and age... Sigh...

Six said...

I agree NFO. Kipling had his finger on the dangers of out of control central government and the entitlement mentality. That his words still ring true after more than a century speaks directly to the idea that those who ignore history are doomed to get run over by the bus.

RabidAlien said...

Not much of a poetry fan (most of it makes no sense, or is about something I don't care one way or the other about....and all the modern stuff just sucks! "Free verse"? Just means the long-haired hippy poet doesn't understand the concepts of "rhyme" or "metre"). But gotta say, your Kipling posts may be starting to get to me a bit. This one made perfect sense. Eery, maybe a bit scary (like reading "1984" again today), and disturbingly prophetic, but still made sense.

Six said...

Kipling is the only poet I really connect with RabidAlien. He was known as the soldiers poet and he speaks directly to that part of me that will always be a soldier. He was also damn perceptive where it comes to governments and tyranny. Eerie is a very good description. After more than a century the old boy seems pretty prophetic.