The poems are listed in the order determined by Kipling when he was preparing the collection for publication; click here for a listing by title, and here for a listing by first line.
Title | First line | Notes |
Dedication | Before a midnight breaks in storm | ![]() |
The Sea and the Hills | Who hath desired the sea? —the sight of salt water unbounded | ![]() |
The Bell Buoy | They christened my brother of old | ![]() |
Cruisers | As our mother the Frigate, bepainted and fine | ![]() |
The Destroyers | The strength of twice three thousand horse | ![]() |
White Horses | Where run your colts at pasture | ![]() |
The Second Voyage | We’ve sent our little Cupids all ashore | ![]() |
The Dykes | We have no heart for the fishing, we have no hand for the oar | ![]() |
The Song of Diego Valdez | The God of Fair Beginnings | ![]() |
The Broken Men | For things we never mention | ![]() |
The Feet of the Young Men | Now the Four-way lodge is opened, and the Hunting Winds are loosed | ![]() |
The Truce of the Bear | Yearly, with tent and rifle, our careless white men go | ![]() |
The Old Men | This is our lot if we live so long, and labour unto the end | ![]() |
The Explorer | There’s no sense in going further—it’s the edge of cultivation | ![]() |
The Wage-slaves | Oh glorious are the guarded heights | ![]() |
The Burial | When that great Kings return to clay | ![]() |
General Joubert | With those that bred, with those that loosed the strife | ![]() |
The Palace | When I was a King and a mason —a Master proven and skilled | ![]() |
Sussex | God gave all men all earth to love | ![]() |
Song of the Wise Children | When the darkened Fifties dip to the North | ![]() |
Buddha at Kamakura | Oh ye who tread the Narrow Way | ![]() |
The White Man’s Burden | Take up the White Man’s Burden | ![]() |
Pharaoh and the Sergeant | Said England unto Pharaoh, ‘I must make a man of you’ | ![]() |
Our Lady of the Snows | A Nation spoke to a Nation | ![]() |
‘Et Dona Ferentes’ | In extended observation of the ways and works of man | ![]() |
Kitchener’s School | Oh Hushee, carry your shoes in your hand, and bow your head on your breast | ![]() |
The Young Queen | Her hand was still on her sword-hilt, the spur was still on her heel | ![]() |
Rimmon | Daily with knees that feign to quake | ![]() |
The Old Issue | ‘Here is nothing new , or aught unproven’, say the trumpets | ![]() |
Bridge Guard in the Karroo | Sudden the desert changes | ![]() |
The Lesson | Let us admit it fairly, as a business people should | ![]() |
The Files | Files | ![]() |
The Reformers | Not in the camp his victory lies | ![]() |
Dirge of Dead Sisters | Who recalls the twlight and the ranged tents in order | ![]() |
The Islanders | No doubt but ye are the people —your throne is abive the King’s | ![]() |
The Peace of Dives | The Word came down to Dives, in Torment where he lay | ![]() |
South Africa | Lived a woman wonderful | ![]() |
The Settler | Here where my fresh-turned furrows run | ![]() |
SERVICE SONGS | ||
The Service Man | “Tommy” you was when it began | ![]() |
Chant Pagan | Me that ‘ave been what I’ve been | ![]() |
M.I. | I wish my mother could see me now, with a fence-post under my arm | ![]() |
Columns | Out o’ the wilderness, dusty and dry | ![]() |
The Parting of the Columns | We’ve rode and fiought and ate and drunk as rations come to hand | ![]() |
Two Kopjes | Only two African kopjes | ![]() |
The Instructor | At times when under cover I ‘ave said | ![]() |
Boots | We’re foot—slog—slog—slog—slogging over Africa | ![]() |
The Married Man | The bachelor, ‘e fights for one | ![]() |
Lichtenberg | Smells are surer than sounds or sights | ![]() |
Stellenbosch | The General ‘eard the firin’ on the flank | ![]() |
Half Ballad of Waterval | When by the labour of my ‘ands | ![]() |
Piet | I do not love my Empire’s foes | ![]() |
Wilful-Missing’ | There is a world outside the one you know | ![]() |
Ubique | There is a word you often see, pronounce it as you may | ![]() |
The Return | Peace is declared, ‘an I return | ![]() |
Recessional | God of our fathers, known of old | ![]() |