A note on the background
of the collection
by Mary Hamer

Publication history
by Mary Hamer


The poems are listed in the order determined by Kipling when he was preparing the collection for publication; click here for a listing by title, and herefor a listing by first line.

Dedication The Sea and the Hills The Bell Buoy Cruisers The Destroyers White Horses The Second Voyage The Dykes The Song of Diego Valdez The Broken Men The Feet of the Young Men The Truce of the Bear The Old Men The Explorer The Wage-slaves The Burial General Joubert The Palace Sussex Song of the Wise Children Buddhe at Kamakura The White Man's Burden Pharaoh and the Sergeant Our Lady of the Snows 'Et Dona Ferentes' Kitchener's School The Young Queen Rimmon The Old Issue Bridge Guard in the Karroo The Lesson The Files The Reformers Dirge of Dead Sisters The Islanders The Peace of Dives South Africa The Settler The Service Man Chant Pagan M.I. Columns The Parting of the Columns Two Kopjes The Instructor Boots The Married Man Lichtenberg Stellenbosh Half Ballad of Waterval Piet Wilful-Missing' Ubique The Return Recessional

The Five Nations (Notes edited by Mary Hamer) [January 21 2008]
Title	First line	Notes
	Before a midnight breaks in storm
	Who hath desired the sea? —the sight of salt water unbounded
	They christened my brother of old
	As our mother the Frigate, bepainted and fine
	The strength of twice three thousand horse
	Where run your colts at pasture
	We've sent our little Cupids all ashore
	We have no heart for the fishing, we have no hand for the oar
	The God of Fair Beginnings
	For things we never mention
	Now the Four-way lodge is opened, and the Hunting Winds are loosed
	Yearly, with tent and rifle, our careless white men go
	This is our lot if we live so long, and labour unto the end
	There's no sense in going further—it's the edge of cultivation
	Oh glorious are the guarded heights
	When that great Kings return to clay
	With those that bred, with those that loosed the strife
	When I was a King and a mason —a Master proven and skilled
	God gave all men all earth to love
	When the darkened Fifties dip to the North
	Oh ye who tread the Narrow Way
	Take up the White Man's Burden
	Said England unto Pharaoh, 'I must make a man of you'
	A Nation spoke to a Nation
	In extended observation of the ways and works of man
	Oh Hushee, carry your shoes in your hand, and bow your head on your breast
	Her hand was still on her sword-hilt, the spur was still on her heel
	Daily with knees that feign to quake
	'Here is nothing new , or aught unproven', say the trumpets
	Sudden the desert changes
	Let us admit it fairly, as a business people should
	Files
	Not in the camp his victory lies
	Who recalls the twlight and the ranged tents in order
	No doubt but ye are the people —your throne is abive the King's
	The Word came down to Dives, in Torment where he lay
	Lived a woman wonderful
	Here where my fresh-turned furrows run
SERVICE SONGS
	"Tommy" you was when it began
	Me that 'ave been what I've been
	I wish my mother could see me now, with a fence-post under my arm
	Out o' the wilderness, dusty and dry
	We've rode and fiought and ate and drunk as rations come to hand
	Only two African kopjes
	At times when under cover I 'ave said
	We're foot—slog—slog—slog—slogging over Africa
	The bachelor, 'e fights for one
	Smells are surer than sounds or sights
	The General 'eard the firin' on the flank
	When by the labour of my 'ands
	I do not love my Empire's foes
	There is a world outside the one you know
	There is a word you often see, pronounce it as you may
	Peace is declared, 'an I return
	God of our fathers, known of old