Before we loose the word
That bids new worlds to birth,
Needs must we loosen first the sword
Of Justice upon earth;
Or else all else is vain
Since life on earth began,
And the spent world sinks back again
Hopeless of God and Man.
A People and their King
Through ancient sin grown strong,
Because they feared no reckoning
Would set no bound to wrong;
But now their hour is past,
And we who bore it find
Evil Incarnate held at last
To answer to mankind.
For agony and spoil
Of nations beat to dust,
For poisoned air and tortured soil
And cold, commanded lust,
And every secret woe
The shuddering waters saw—
Willed and fulfilled by high and low—
Let them relearn the Law.
That when the dooms are read,
Not high nor low shall say:—
"My haughty or my humble head
Has saved me in this day."
That, till the end of time,
Their remnant shall recall
Their fathers' old, confederate crime
Availed them not at all.
Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/465
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INCLUSIVE EDITION, 1885-1918
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