living,
And strong for battle still,
Would Mehrab Khan or Roostum
Have climbed, like these, the Hill?"

And they replied, "Though Mehrab Khan was brave,
As chief, he chose himself what risks to run;
Prince Roostum lied, his forfeit life to save,
Which these had never done."

"Enough!" he shouted fiercely;
"Doomed though they be to hell,
Bind fast the crimson trophy
Round BOTH wrists--bind it well.
Who knows but that great Allah
May grudge such matchless men,
With none so decked in heaven,
To the fiend's flaming den?"

Then all those gallant robbers
Shouted a stern "Amen!"
They raised the slaughter'd sergeant,
They raised his mangled ten.
And when we found their bodies
Left bleaching in the wind,
Around BOTH wrists in glory
That crimson thread was twined.

370

In the year 1897 a great diamond jubilee was
held in England in honor of the completion of
sixty years of rule by Queen Victoria. Many
poems were written for the occasion, most of
which praised the greatness of Britain, the
extent of her dominion, the strength of her
army and navy, and the abundance of her wealth.
The "Recessional" was written for the occasion
by Rudyard Kipling (1865--). It is in the form
of a prayer, but its purpose was to tell the
British that they were forgetting the "God of
our fathers" and putting their trust in wealth
and navies and the "reeking tube and iron
shard" of the cannon. The poem rang through
England like a bugle call and stirred the
British people more deeply than any other poem
of recent times.

RECESSIONAL

RUDYARD KIPLING

God of our fathers, known of old--
Lord of our far flung battle-line--
Beneath whose awful hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine--
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget--lest we forget!

The tumult and the shouting dies--
The captains and the kings depart--
Still stands Thine ancient Sacrifice,
A humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget--lest we forget!

Far-called our navi