"Rome never looks where she treads"

[Minstrel Boy]

Occupations are ALWAYS doomed enterprises. Even Kipling could have told Wolfowitz that.

A Pict Song


ROME never looks where she treads.
Always her heavy hooves fall,
On our stomachs, our hearts or our heads;
And Rome never heeds when we bawl.
Her sentries pass on—that is all,
And we gather behind them in hordes,
And plot to reconquer the Wall,
With only our tongues for our swords.


We are the Little Folk—we!
Too little to love or to hate.
Leave us alone and you’ll see
How we can drag down the State!
We are the worm in the wood!
We are the rot at the root!
We are the taint in the blood!
We are the thorn in the foot!


Mistletoe killing an oak—
Rats gnawing cables in two—
Moths making holes in a cloak—
How they must love what they do!.
Yes—and we Little Folk too,
We are busy as they—
Working our works out of view—
Watch, and you’ll see it some day!


No indeed! We are not strong,
But we know Peoples that are.
Yes, and we’ll guide them along,
To smash and destroy you in War!
We shall be slaves just the same?
Yes, we have always been slaves,
But you—you will die of the shame,
And then we shall dance on your graves!

[Minstrel Boy]

1. ah geez, I hate to do this, but

>kick!<

[Minstrel Boy]

2. And I really, really hate to do this, but

>kick!<

[Elidor]

3. Is that really Kipling? He was living in a glass house.

I guess he wasn't a total waste. Bugger him just the same.

But that is a nice poem.

[Minstrel Boy]

4. Remarkably, it is Kipling.

And he must have had a huge blindspot to write these words, as well as "Take up the white man's burden."

I discovered it through Billy Bragg; he covers it on "William Bloke."

[Lisa]

5. I think that "white man's burden" is partly satirical ...

Some literature experts are now suggesting that he was aware of the negative side of imperialism. For example, in the "Stalky and Co." stories, Kipling makes fun of the overly-earnest patriotic and missionary types who tried to make colonization a moral duty.

[Minstrel Boy]

8. interesting

I hadn't considered that, thanks.

[annabanana]

9. he saw through the glasses of the times.........not remarkably evil.

His language sounds frightfully biased to our ears, but he treats his characters wtih respect regardless of race and we all rejoice with Mowgli in Letting in the Jungle. In The Bitter Karela we see that everything that goes up must come down.

[Beam Me Up]

6. Kick worthy, most assuredly MB.

:kick:

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

7. Billy Bragg has an EXCELLENT version of this....

...on his William Bloke album.

Maybe the best cut on the ablum...

[Minstrel Boy]

10. agree, that's beautiful

It's how I discovered it. Stunned me to see they were Kipling's words.