PHARAOH AND THE SERGEANT But he did it on the cheap and on the quiet, And he's not allowed to forward any claimThough he drilled a black man white, though he made a mummy fight, He will still continue Sergeant Whatisname-Private, Corporal, Colour-Sergeant, and In structor But the everlasting miracle's the same! OUR LADY OF THE SNOWS (CANADIAN PREFERENTIAL TARIFF, 1897) A NATION spoke to a Nation, A Queen sent word to a Throne: "Daughter am I in my mother's house, But mistress in my own. The gates are mine to open, As the gates are mine to close, Said our Lady of the Snows. "Neither with laughter nor weeping, Soberly under the White Man's law Insult or threat of blows- I talk of common things— Words of the wharf and the market-place And the ware the merchant brings; Favour to those I favour, But a stumbling-block to my foes. Many there be that hate us," Said our Lady of the Snows. "I called my chiefs to council For we be also a people," Said our Lady of the Snows. "Carry the word to my sisters To the Queens of the East and the South. I have proven faith in the Heritage By more than the word of the mouth. They that are wise may follow Ere the world's war-trumpet blows: But I-I am first in the battle,' Said our Lady of the Snows. OUR LADY OF THE SNOWS A Nation spoke to a Nation, A Throne sent word to a Throne: Daughter am I in my mother's house, But mistress in my own! The gates are mine to open, As the gates are mine to close, Said our Lady of the Snows. "ET DONA FERENTES" IN extended observation of the ways and works of man, From the Four-mile Radius roughly to the plains of Hindustan : I have drunk with mixed assemblies, seen the racial ruction rise, And the men of half creation damning half creation's eyes. I have watched them in their tantrums, all that pentecostal crew, French, Italian, Arab, Spaniard, Dutch and Greek, and Russ and Jew, Celt and savage, buff and ochre, cream and yellow, mauve and white, But it never really mattered till the English grew polite; Copyright, 1896, by Rudyard Kipling. |