Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936). Verse: 1885–1918. 1922.

Romulus and Remus

OH, little did the Wolf-Child care—

When first he planned his home,

What city should arise and bear

The weight and state of Rome.

A shiftless, westward-wandering tramp,

Checked by the Tiber flood,

He reared a wall around his camp

Of uninspired mud.

But when his brother leaped the Wall

And mocked its height and make,

He guessed the future of it all

And slew him for its sake.

Swift was the blow—swift as the thought

Which showed him in that hour

How unbelief may bring to naught

The early steps of Power.

Forseeing Time’s imperilled hopes

Of Glory, Grace, and Love—

All singers, Cæsars, artists, Popes—

Would fail if Remus throve,

He sent his brother to the Gods,

And, when the fit was o’er,

Went on collecting turves and clods

To build the Wall once more!