Kipling's Noble Poem.

Hastings Standard, Issue 423, 11 September 1897, Page 4

Kipling's Noble Poem.

The Times printed the following noble poem by Eudyard Kipling, a poem which brings buck lne-uorifcs of the Queen, sitting with bowed head outside St. Paul's, offering thanks to God for the blessings and. mercies of her reign. The poem is one which everyone under British rule should read, its spirit is that which every Britisher should feel. It is a nation's prayer written by a nation's poet. It is entitled : RECESSIONAL. God of our fathers, known to old— Lord of our far-flung battle-line — Beneath Whose awful Hand to hold Dominion over palm and pine— Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forget—lest we forget! The tumult and the shouting dies— The captains and the kings depart, Still stands Thine ancient Sacrifice, An humble and a contrite heart, Lord God of Hosts, bo with us yet, Lest we forget—lest we forget! Far-called our navies melt away— On dune and headland sinks the fire— Lo, all our pomp of yesterday Is one with Nineveh and Tyro ! Judge of the Nations, spare us yet, Lest we forget—lest we forget ! If, drunk with sight of power, we loose, Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe— Such boasting as the Gentiles use Or lesser breeds without the Law — Lord God of Hosts, bo with us yet, Let we forget—lest wc forget ! For heathen heart that puts her trust In reeking tube and iron shard— All valiant dust that builds on dust, And guardingcalls not Thee to guard — For frantic boast and foolish word, Thy Mercy on Thy People, Lord ! Amen. Eudyard KiplingCommenting on this the Times says " The deep sense of religious feeling and of moral obligation which has colored the whole of the Queen's life will bring her heartily into unison with the spirit of the fine poem by Mr Rudyard Kipling winch we print this morning. There is a tendency, in these days, to rush into dithyrambic raptures over every great exhibition of national power. It is well that we should be reminded by a man who, more perhaps than any other living man, has been identified with pride of Empire and with confidence in the destinies of our race, that there is a spiritual as well as a material side to national greatness. The lesson has been taught before by some of our noblest men of letters —by Milton and Wordsworth, by Burke and Carlyle. We all acknowledge its truth, in our hours of serious thought, but, none the less, we need, all of us, the warning words of the seer and the bard—" Lest we forget —lest we forget! " The most dangerous and demoralizing temper into which a State can fall is one of boastful pride. To be humble in eur strength, to avoid the excesses of an over-confident vanity, to be as regardful of the rights of others as if we were neither powerful nor wealthy, to shun " Such boasting as the Gentiles use, Or lesser "breeds without the Law," —these are the conditions upon which our dominion by sea and land is based even more than on fleets and armies. At this moment of Imperial exaltation, Mr Kipling does well to remind his countrymen that we have something more to do than build battleships and multiply guns. All that is, of course, a matter of duty, and, indeed, of necessity ; but our immense Imperial power depends for its effectiveness on the spirit that is behind it, not only on the courage and firmness of our people, not only on their patience and reasonableness, but on their strong and sincere conviction of moral responsibility. Among all the splendors "of the Jubilee, among the justifiable expressions of national pride and personal devotion to the Sovereign, this last feeling was, we rejoice to believe, a dominant note. It rings out as clearly in the simple grandeur of the Queen's message as in Mr Kipling's soul-stirring verse.