The Years Between

The poems are listed in the order determined by Kipling for the collection. Click here for a listing by first line, and here for a listing by title.

Title First line Notes
Dedication. To the Seven Watchmen Seven watchmen sitting in a tower
The Rowers The banked oars fell an hundred strong
The Veterans Today, across our fathers’ graves
The Declaration of London We were all one heart and one race
Ulster The dark eleventh hour
The Covenant We thought we ranked above the chance of ill
France [Prelude to France at War] Broke to every known mischance, lifted over all
For all we have and are (or ‘No easy hope’) For all we have and are
A Song in Storm (or ‘Fate’s Discourtesy’) Be well assured that on our side
The Outlaws Through learned and laborious years
Zion (or ‘The Doorkeepers of Zion’) The Doorkeepers of Zion
Lord Roberts (or, ‘When the Master Gunner Died’) He passed in the very battle-smoke
The Question (or ‘The Neutral’) Brethren, how shall it fare with me
The Choice (or ‘Hymn of the Free People’) To the Judge of Right and Wrong
The Holy War A tinker out of Bedford
The Houses (or; ‘In the House Militant’; or; ‘A Song of the Dominions’) Twixt my house and thy house the pathway is broad
Russia to the Pacifists God rest you, peaceful gentlemen, let nothing you dismay
The Irish Guards We’re not so old in the Army List
A Nativity The Babe was laid in the Manger
En-Dor The road to En-dor is easy to tread
A Recantation (or ‘To Lyde of the Music Halls’) What boots it on the Gods to call?
My Boy Jack Have you news of my boy Jack?’
The Verdicts (or ‘Jutland’) Not in the thick of the fight
Mesopotamia They shall not return to us, the resolute, the young
The Hyaenas After the burial-parties leave
The Spies’ March There are no leaders to lead us to honour, and yet without leaders we sally;
The Sons of Martha The Sons of Mary seldom bother, for they have inherited that good part;
Mary’s Son (or Don’t Stop) We counterfeited once for your disport
The Song of the Lathes The fans and the beltings they roar round me.
Gethsemane The Garden called Gethsemane
The Pro-Consuls The overfaithful sword returns the user
The Craftsman Once, after long-drawn revel at The Mermaid
Things and the Man (In Memoriam – Joseph Chamberkain) Oh ye who hold the written clue
The Benefactors Ah! What avails the classic bent
The Dead King (or ‘Edward VII’) Who in the Realm to-day lays down dear life for the sake of a land more dear?
A Death-Bed This is the State above the Law
Gehazi Whence comest thou, Gehazi
The Virginity Try as he will, no man breaks wholly loose
A Pilgrim’s Way (Heading to ‘Up the River’) I do not look for holy saints to guide me on my way
The Oldest Song These were never your true love’s eyes
Natural Theology (chorus) We had a kettle; we let it leak
A Song at Cock-Crow (or ‘Ille Autem Iterum Negavit’) The first time that Peter denièd his Lord
The Female of the Species When the Himalayan peasant meets the he-bear in his pride
Epitaphs of the War A. “I was a Have”. B. “I was a ‘Have-not'”.
The City of Brass In a land that the sand overlays – the way to her gates are untrod
Justice Across a world where all men grieve