Kipling and War by Andrew Lycett

Author:Andrew Lycett [Lycett, Andrew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2015-09-14T23:00:00+00:00

This poem does not refer to anyone in particular, but again shows Kipling’s empathy with the courage and endurance of everyone under arms, even those fighting against the British.

Piet

(Regular of the Line)

I do not love my Empire’s foes,

Nor call ’em angels; still,

What is the sense of ’atin’ those

’Oom you are paid to kill?

So, barrin’ all that foreign lot

Which only joined for spite,

Myself, I’d just as soon as not

Respect the man I fight.

Ah there, Piet! – ’is trousies to ’is knees,

’Is coat-tails lyin’ level in the bullet-sprinkled breeze;

’E does not lose ’is rifle an’ ’e does not lose ’is seat,

I’ve known a lot o’ people ride a dam’ sight worse than Piet.

I’ve ’eard ’im cryin’ from the ground

Like Abel’s blood of old,

An’ skirmished out to look, an’ found

The beggar nearly cold.

I’ve waited on till ’e was dead

(Which couldn’t ’elp ’im much),

But many grateful things ’e’s said

To me for doin’ such.

Ah there, Piet! whose time ’as come to die,

’Is carcase past rebellion, but ’is eyes inquirin’ why.

Though dressed in stolen uniform with badge o’ rank complete,

I’ve known a lot o’ fellers go a dam’ sight worse than Piet.

An’ when there wasn’t aught to do

But camp and cattle-guards,

I’ve fought with ’im the ’ole day through

At fifteen ’undred yards;

Long afternoons o’ lyin’ still,

An’ ’earin’ as you lay

The bullets swish from ’ill to ’ill

Like scythes among the ’ay.

Ah there, Piet! – be’ind ’is stony kop.

With ’is Boer bread an’ biltong, an’ ’is flask of awful Dop;

’Is Mauser for amusement an’ ’is pony for retreat,

I’ve known a lot o’ fellers shoot a dam’ sight worse than Piet.

He’s shoved ’is rifle ’neath my nose

Before I’d time to think,

An’ borrowed all my Sunday clo’es

An’ sent me ’ome in pink.

[First published in The Five Nations (1903).]

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