POETRY.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXVI, Issue 3262, 20 October 1897, Page 1 (Supplement)

POETRY.

NEW POEM BY HDD YARD KIPLING

The most notable of the contents of the summer number of the Graphic is the stirring poem in “ Soldierese ” by Eudyard Kipling, in which that truly British and Imperial poet pays vigorous and eloquent tribute to the sterling services of the English Sergeant Instructors who have turned the downtrodden fellaheen of Egypt into the brave troops that defeated the dervishes at Ferkeh and are now driving tho Khalifa's forces before them in the Soudan. PHARAOH AND THE SERGEANT. [By Ri:dyak!) Kipling] . , . consider that the meritorious services of the Sergeant Instructor attached to the Egyptian • Army have been inadequately acknowledged. . . . To the excellence of their work is mainly due tho great improvement that has taken place in the soldiers of H.II. tho Khedive*—Extract from loiter* Said England unto Pharaoh “Jtmust make a man of you That wilt stand upon his feet and play the game; That will Maxim his oppressor as a Qhristian ought to do M Ai.cl kht* szntold Pharaoh Sergeant Whatisname. It was not a Duke nor Earl, nor j’et a Viscount— It wes not a lig brass General that came j But & man in khaki kit who could handle men a bit, With, his bedding labelled Sergeant Whutuname.

Said England unto Pharaoh, “ Tho’ at present singing sm >ll, You shall hum a proper tune before it ends,*’ And she introduced old Pharaoh to the Sergeant once for all, And left ’em in the desert making friends. It wai not u Crystal Palace nor Cathedral; It w.ih not a public house of common fame ; But a piece of red-hot sand, with a palm on either hand, And a little hut for Sergeant Whalisname.

Said England unto Pharaoh, 11 You’ve had miracles before, Wh-n Aaron struck your rivers into blood j But if you watch the Sergeant he can show you something more. He's a charm fur making riflemen from mud.”

It was neither Hindustani, French, nor Coptic ; It was edda and ends and leavings of the same' Transplanted by a stick (which is really half the trick), And Pharaoh hearked to Sergeant Whatisname.

['There were years that no one talked of; there were tinr-s of horrid doubt— There was faith and hope and whacking and denpait— While the Sergeant gave the Cautions and he combed old Pharaoh out, And England didn’c look to know nor care. That is England's awful way o' doing bu-imss— . She would serve her God or Gordon just the same— For she thinks her Empire still Is the Strand and Holborn Hill, And she didu’c think o’ Sergeant What isname.)

Said England to the Sergeant, “You can let my people go 1” (England used ’em cheap' and nasty from the start) And they entered 'em at Firkeh on a most astonished foe— But the Sergeant he had hardened Pharoahs heart

That whs broke, along of all the Plagues of Kgyptj Three thousand years before the Sergeant came

And he mende > it again in a little more than ten, So Pharoah fought like Sergeant Wliatisname 1

It was wickrd bad campaigning (cheap and nasty from the first), There was heat and dust and coolie-work and sun ; There were vipers,-flies and sandstorms, there was cholera and thirst, Gut Pharoah done the best he ever done. Down tin-; desert, down the railway, down l he river, Like the Israelites from bondage, so he C>me, * Tween the clouds o* dust and fire to the I tnd t f his desire* And his Moses it was . Sergeant Whattsname !

We are eating dirt in handfuls for to save otir daily bread, Which we hare to buy from those that hate us most, And we must not raise the money where the Sergeant raised the dead, And it's wrong and bad and dangerous to boast,

But l.e did it on the cheap and on the quiet, And he’s not allowed to forward any claim— Though he drilled a black man white, though he made a imitmny fight, He will still continue Sergeant Whafcisname— Private, Corporal, Colour-Sergeant and Instructor— Bub the everlasting miracle’s the same !