“Departmental Ditties”

Departmental Ditties and Other Verses

The poems are listed by first line; click here for a list by title, here for a list by edition, and here for a list as set out by Kipling for the Edition de Luxe in 1900.

First line Title Notes
A great and glorious thing it is Arithmetic on the Frontier
A wanderer from East to West A Ballade of Bad Entertainment
Ahasuerus Jenkins of the “Operatic Own” Army Headquarters
As I left the Halls at Lumley, rose the vision of a comely As the Bell Clinks
Ay, lay him ‘neath the Simla pine- Possibilities
Beneath the deep verandah’s shade The Moon of Other Days
Boanerges Blitzen, servant of the Queen The Man who could Write
By the Laws of the Family Circle ’tis written in letters of brass Public Waste
By the well, where the bullocks go What the People said
Come here, ye lasses av swate Parnassis! A Levée in the Plains
Delilah Aberystwith was a lady – not too young- Delilah
Dim dawn behind the tamarisks – the sky is saffron-yellow Christmas in India
Ere the steamer bore him Eastward, Sleary was engaged to marry The Post that Fitted
Pagett, M.P., was a liar, and a fluent liar therewith,- Pagett, M.P.
Eyes of grey – a sodden quay The Lovers’ Litany
How shall she know the worship we would do her? The Song of the Women
How sweet is the shepherd’s sweet life! The Masque of Plenty
Hurree Chunder Mookerjee, pride of Bow Bazaar What Happened
If it were mine to choose The Man and the Shadow
I go to concert, party, ball My Rival
I had seen, as dawn was breaking La Nuit Blanche
I have eaten your bread and salt Prelude
I have worked for ten seasons or more The Plaint of the Junior Civilian
If it be pleasant to look on, stalled in the packed serai Certain Maxims of Hafiz
If down here I chance to die A Ballade of Burial
Imprimis he was ‘broke’. Thereafter left Giffen’s Debt
In the name of the Empress of India, make way The Overland Mail
It was an artless Bandar and he danced upon a pine Divided Destinies
It was an August evening and , in snowy garments clad Municipal
I’ve danced till my shoes are outworn Carmen Simlaense
Jack Barrett went to Quetta The Story of Uriah
Jane Austen Beecher Stowe de Rouse The Mare’s Nest
Jenny and Me were engaged, you see Pink Donimoes
Moralists we O Baal, Hear us !
My garden blazes brightly with the rose-bush and the peach In Springtime
No hope, no change! The clouds have shut us in Two Months
None whole or clean,’ we cry, ‘or free from stain The Last Department
Now Jones had left his new-wed bride to keep his house in order A Code of Morals
Now the New Year, reviving Last Year’s Debt The Rupaiyat of Omar Kal’vin
Oh gallant was our galley from her carven steering-wheel The Galley Slave
One moment, bid the horses wait A Ballade of Jakko Hill
Open the old cigar-box, get me a Cuba stout The Betrothed
Potiphar Gubbins, C.E. Study of an Elevation in Indian Ink
Rustum Beg of Kolazai – slightly backward Native State A Legend of the Foreign Office
So here’s your Empire. No more wine, then? Good One Viceroy Resigns
So long as ‘neath the Kalka hills An Old Song
The eldest son bestrides him The Undertaker’s Horse
The smoke upon your Altar dies Envoi
The wind in the pine sings Her praises Our Lady of Rest
There’s a widow in sleepy Chester The Grave of the Hundred Head
Think not, O thou from College late deported Lucifer
This fell when dinner-time was done- The Fall of Jock Gillespie
Twas Fultah Fisher’s boarding-house The Ballad of Fisher’s Boarding House
We are very slightly changed General Summary
We knit a riven land to strength by cannon, code and sword For the Women
What have we ever done to bear this grudge?’ The Plea of the Simla Dancers
When the flush of the new-born sun fell first on Eden’s green and gold New Lamps for Old’
Where the sober-coloured cultivator smiles A Tale of Two Cities
Will you conquer my heart with your beauty, my soul going out from afar? To the Unknown Goddess