Poems That Every Child Should Know/True Royalty

by Rudyard Kipling

For other versions of this work, see There was never a Queen like Balkis.

True Royalty.

"True Royalty" and "Playing Robinson Crusoe" are pleasing stanzas from "The Just So Stories" of Rudyard Kipling (1865-).

There was never a Queen like Balkis,
From here to the wide world's end;
But Balkis talked to a butterfly
As you would talk to a friend.

There was never a King like Solomon,
Not since the world began;
But Solomon talked to a butterfly
As a man would talk to a man.

She was Queen of Sabaea—
And he was Asia's Lord
But they both of 'em talked to butterflies
When they took their walks abroad.

Rudyard Kipling.

(In "The Just So Stories.")