Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

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

An Old Song

SO long as ’neath the Kalka hills

The tonga-horn shall ring,

So long as down the Solon dip

The hard-held ponies swing,

So long as Tara Devi sees

The lights of Simla town,

So long as Pleasure calls us up,

Or Duty drives us down,

If you love me as I love you

What pair so happy as we two?

So long as Aces take the King,

Or backers take the bet,

So long as debt leads men to wed,

Or marriage leads to debt,

So long as little luncheons, Love,

And scandal hold their vogue,

While there is sport at Annandale

Or whisky at Jutogh,

If you love me as I love you

What knife can cut our love in two?

So long as down the rocking floor

The raving polka spins,

So long as Kitchen Lancers spur

The maddened violins,

So long as through the whirling smoke

We hear the oft-told tale—

“Twelve hundred in the Lotteries,”

And Whatshername for sale?

If you love me as I love you

We’ll play the game and win it too.

So long as Lust or Lucre tempt

Straight riders from the course,

So long as with each drink we pour

Black brewage of Remorse,

So long as those unloaded guns

We keep beside the bed,

Blow off, by obvious accident,

The lucky owner’s head,

If you love me as I love you

What can Life kill or Death undo?

So long as Death ’twixt dance and dance

Chills best and bravest blood,

And drops the reckless rider down

The rotten, rain-soaked khud,

So long as rumours from the North

Make loving wives afraid,

So long as Burma takes the boy

Or typhoid kills the maid,

If you love me as I love you

What knife can cut our love in two?

By all that lights our daily life

Or works our lifelong woe,

From Boileaugunge to Simla Downs

And those grim glades below,

Where, heedless of the flying hoof

And clamour overhead,

Sleep, with the grey langur for guard

Our very scornful Dead,

If you love me as I love you

All Earth is servant to us two!

By Docket, Billetdoux, and File,

By Mountain, Cliff, and Fir,

By Fan and Sword and Office-box,

By Corset, Plume, and Spur

By Riot, Revel, Waltz, and War,

By Women, Work, and Bills,

By all the life that fizzes in

The everlasting Hills,

If you love me as I love you

What pair so happy as we two?