Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936). Verse: 1885–1918. 1922.
Prelude
(To Departmental Ditties)
I
I have drunk your water and wine.
The deaths ye died I have watched beside,
And the lives ye led were mine.
In vigil or toil or ease,—
One joy or woe that I did not know,
Dear hearts across the seas?
For a sheltered people’s mirth,
In jesting guise—but ye are wise,
And ye know what the jest is worth.