Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1902-02-14
THE ISLANDERS
Rudyard kfLling's Poem In Full, Reprint
ed from the London Times.

Fenced by your careful fathers, ringed b,
your leaden seas,
Long did We wake in quiet, and long lii
down at ease
Till ye said of strife "What is it ?" of tn
sword: "It is far from our ken y
Tillye made sport of your shrunken host
and toy of your armed men.
Ye stopped your ears to the waring-y,
| would neither look nor heed
Ye set your leisure before their toll and
your lusts above their need,
Because of your witless learning and youl
beasts Of warren and chase
Ye grudged your sons for their service and
your fields for their camping place.
Ye forced them to CLEAN in the highways
thestraw for the bricks they brought
Ye forced them to follow in by-ways the
craft that ye never taught;
Ye hindered and hampered and crippled
ye thrust out Of sight and away
Those tat would serve you with honor
and those that served you for pay.
Then were the Judgements loosened then
was yOu4 oao1aO0 1OVOo4C0
At the hands of a little people few but apt
in the field.
Yet ye were saved by remnant (and your
lands long suffering. .Star,)
When your strong men cheered in their
millions while your striplings went
to the war.
Sons of the sheltered city-unmade- -un-
handled, unmeet-
Ye pushed them raw to the battle as ye
picked them raw from the street
And what did ye look they should COM
pass? War craft learn in breath
knowledge unto occasion at the first far
view of death?
30 and We train your horses and dogs ye
feed and prize;
How are the beasts more worthy than the
souls ye sacrifice?
But ye said: "Their valor shall show them;"
but ye said 1.-THE end is close -
And ye sent them comfits and pictures to
help them harry your foes,
And ye vaunted your fathomless power
and ye Haunted your iron pride
Ere ye fawned on the younger nation for
the men whJ could shoot and ride
Then ye returned to your idols; then ye
contented your souls,
With the fanneled fools at the wicket and
the muddied OATS at the goals,
Given to strong delusion, wholly believing
lie.
Ye saw that the land lay fenceless and ye
let the months 60 by.
W aiting some easy wonder: hoping some
saving sign
idle-in the lee Of the fore
spent lines.
dle-except for your boasting. and what
is your b0asting worth
t you grudge year of service to the lord |
liest life on earth?
Ancient, etfortless. ordered, cycle on cycle |
set.
life SO long .untroubled that ye who in
herit forget
t was not made with the mountains; it is |
not one with the deep
Zen. not gods devised it. Men, not gods,
must keep.
u0u, uOt CulluIOus oCASoAeS VI A1AoAoAA |
called from afar,
3ut each man born in the island broke to
the matter of war;
oberly and by custom taken and trained
for the same;
Zach man born to the island entered at
youth to the game
Is it were almost cricket-as it were even
your play
Weighed and pondered and worshipped
and practiced day on day,
o ye shall bide full guarded when the
restless ightnings wake
n the womb of the blotting war-cloudand
the pallid nations quake,
o. at the haggard trumpets, instant your
soul shall leap
fortnight, full harnessed, accepting
alert from the wells Of sleep. /
10 at the threat ye shall summon-so a.
the need ye'shall send
den, not children or servants, tempered
and taught to. the end,
,leansed of servile panic. slow to dread or
despise,
tumble because of knowledge. mighty by
sacrifice.
But We say ''lt will mar our comfort
1e say. ''lt will minish our trade"
10 ye wait for the spattered shrapnel ere
We learn how gun is laid?
For the low red glare to the south ward
when the raided coast towns burn?
Light We shall have on that lesson. but
little time to learn)
Will ye pitch some white Pavilion and
Justify even the odds
With nets and hoops and mallets with