These are the chapter headings to be found in the 1913 U.K. edition of Songs from Books. The verses are listed by book, in date order, and within books in the order of the stories and chapters which they head. Click here for a listing by first line.
The 14 headings from The Jungle Books were not included in the 1912 American Edition of Songs from Books, nor was ‘We be the Gods” from Chapter XIX of of The Naulahka, marked in red in the list below.
Title | Book | First line | Notes |
PLAIN TALES FROM THE HILLS (1888) |
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Look, you have cast out love | Lispeth | Look, you have cast out love, what gods are there | |
When the earth was sick | The Other Man | When the earth was sick, and the skiess were grey | |
Cry “Murder” | His Wedded Wife | Cry “Murder” in the market-place, and each | |
Go, stalk the red deer .. | Pig | Go, stalk the red deer o’er the heather | |
Stopped in the Straight | In the Pride of his Youth | Stopped in the straight, when the race was his own | |
And Some are Sulky | Thrown Away | And some are sulky, while some will plunge | |
The World hath set | Tods’ Amendment | The World hath set its heavy yoke | |
Not though you die tonight | By Word of Mouth | Not though you die tonight, O Sweet, and wail | |
They burnt a corpse | In Error | They burnt a corpse upon the sand | |
Ride with an idle whip | The Conversion of Aurelian McGoggin | Ride with an idle whip, ride with an unused heel | |
It was not in the open fight | The Rout of the White Hussars | It was not in the open fight | |
In the daytime | The Bronckhoorst Divorce Case | In the daytime, when she moved about me | |
A stone’s throw out | In the House of Suddhoo | A stone’s throw out on either hand | |
Tonight, God knows | False Dawn | Tonight, God knows what thing shall tide, | |
Pit where the buffalo cooled his hide | Cupid’s Arrows | Pit where the buffalo cooled his hide | |
He drank strong waters | A Bank Fraud | He drank strong waters, and his speech was coarse | |
Thus, for a season | The Resue of Pluffles | Thus, for a season, they fought it fair | |
Then a pile of heads, he laid | His Chance in Life | Then a pile of heads, he laid | |
Rosicrucian subtleties | Consequences | Rosicrucian subtleties | |
So we loosed a bloomin’ volley | The Taking of Lungtungpen | So we loosed a bloomin’ volley | |
Pleasant it is | A Germ Destroyer | Pleasant it is for the Little Tin Gods | |
There is a tide | Kidnapped | There is a tide in the affairs of men | |
While the snaffle holds | The Broken-Link Handicap | While the snaffle holds, or the long-neck stings | |
Little Blind Fish | The Bisara of Pooree | Little Blind Fish, thou art marvellous wise | |
BEAST AND MAN IN INDIA (1891) |
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The Goat | Beast and Man in India | They killed a Child to please the Gods | |
The Oxen | Beast and Man in India | Between the waving tufts of jungle-grass | |
The beasts are very wise | Beast and Man in India | The beasts are very wise | |
The Elephant | Beast and Man in India | The torn boughs trailing | |
Dark children of the mere | Beast and Man in India | Dark children of the mere | |
LIFE’S HANDICAP (1891) |
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The doors were wide | The Return of Imray | The doors were wide, the story saith | |
Before my Spring | Without Benefit of Clergy | Before my Spring I garnered Autumn’s gain. | |
There’s a convict more | The Head of the District | There’s a convict more in the Central Jail | |
The Earth gave up her dead | The Man who Was | The Earth gave up her dead that tide | |
The sky is lead | At the End of the Passage | The sky is lead and our faces are red | |
THE LIGHT THAT FAILED (1891) |
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So we settled it | The Light that Failed (I) | So we settled it all when the storm was done | |
Then we brought the lances | The Light that Failed (II) | Then we brought the lances down—then the trumpets blew | |
The wolf-cub at even | The Light that Failed (IV) | The wolf-cub at even lay hid in the corn | |
I have a thousand men | The Light that Failed (V) | I have a thousand men, said he, | |
If I have taken the common clay | The Light that Failed (IX) | If I have taken the common clay | |
The lark will make her hymn | The Light that Failed (XI) | The lark will make her hymn to God | |
There were three friends | The Light that Failed (XII) | There were three friends that buried the fourth | |
Yet at the last | The Light that Failed (XIV) | Yet at the last, ere our spearmen had found him | |
THE NAULAHKA (1092) |
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There was a strife | The Naulahka (I) | There was a strife ‘twixt man and maid | |
Beware the man | The Naulahka (II) | Beware the man who’s crossed in love | |
Your patience, Sirs. | The Naulahka (IV) | Your patience, Sirs, The Devil took me up. | |
Now it is not good… | The Naulahka (V) | Now it is nor good for the Christian’s health, to hustle the Aryan brown | |
There is pleasure in the wet, wet clay | The Naulahka (VII) | There is pleasure in the wet, wet clay | |
When a lover hies abroad | The Naulahka (VIII) | When a Lover hies abroad | |
We meet in an evil land | The Naulahka (IX) | We meet in an evil land | |
This I saw | The Naulahka (XII) | This I saw when the rites were done | |
Beat off ? | The Naulahka (XIII) | Beat off in our last fight were we ? | |
Because I sought it | The Naulahka (XIV) | Because I sought it far from men | |
We be the Gods | The Naulahka (XIX) | We be the Gods of the East | |
MANY INVENTIONS (1893) |
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Less you want your toes trod off | My Lord the Elephant | Less you want your toes trod off you’d better get back at oince | |
THE JUNGLE BOOK (1894) |
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Night Song in the Jungle | Mowgli’s Brothers | Now Chil the Kite brings home the night | |
Maxims of Baloo | Kaa’s Hunting | His spots are the joy of the Leopard: his horns are the Buffalo’s pride, | |
What of the hunting | Tiger, Tiger ! | What of the hunting, hunter bold? | |
Oh hush thee my baby | The White Seal | Oh! hush thee, my baby, the night is behind us, | |
You mustn’t swim till you’re six weeks old | The White Seal | You mustn’t swim till you’re six weeks old | |
At the hole where he went in | Rikki -ikki-Tavi | At the hole where he went in | |
I will remember what I was | Toomai of the Elephants | I will remember what I was. I am sick of rope and chain— | |
THE SECOND JUNGLE BOOK (1895) |
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The stream is shrunk, the pool is dry | How Fear Came | The stream is shrunk—the pool is dry, | |
The night we felt the earth would move | The Miracle of Purun Bhagat | The night we felt the earth would move | |
Veil them. cover them, wall them sound | Letting in the Jungle | Veil them, cover them, wall them round— | |
When ye say to Tabaqui ‘My Brother!’ | The Undertakers | When ye say to Tabaqui, “My Brother!” when ye call the Hyena to meat, | |
These are the Four that are never content | The King’s Ankus | These are the Four that are never content, that have never been filled since the Dews began— | |
The people of the Eastern Ice | Quiquern | The People of the Eastern Ice, they are melting like the snow— | |
For our white and our excellent nights | Red Dog | For our white and our excellent nights—for the nights of swift running | |
Man goes to Man! | The Spring Running | Man goes to Man! Cry the challenge through the Jungle! | |
THE DAY’S WORK (1898) |
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The Song of the Engines | The Ship that Found Herself | We now, held in captivity | |
KIM (1900) |
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Unto whose use | Kim Chapter VI1 | Unto whose use the pregnant suns are poised | |
THE SUSSEX EDITION (1937) |
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Pity poor fighting men | With Number Three | All the world over, nursing their scars | |
Put forth to watch | The Way that he Took | Put forth to watch, unschooled, alone |