Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/274

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RUDYARD KIPLING'S VERSE

"The dead dumb fog hath wrapped it the frozen dews have kissed—
"The naked stars have seen it, a fellow-star in the mist.
"What is the Flag of England? Ye have but my breath to dare,
"Ye have but my waves to conquer. Go forth, for it is there!"


The Dead King

(Edward VII.)

1910

Who in the Realm to-day lays down dear life for the sake of a land more dear?
And, unconcerned for his own estate, toils till the last grudged sands have run?
Let him approach. It is proven here
Our King asks nothing of any man more than Our King himself has done.

For to him above all was Life good, above all he commanded
Her abundance full-handed.
The peculiar treasure of Kings was his for the taking:
All that men come to in dreams he inherited waking:—

His marvel of world-gathered armies—one heart and all races;
His seas 'neath his keels when his war-castles foamed to their places;
The thundering foreshores that answered his heralded landing;

The huge lighted cities adoring, the assemblies upstanding;