Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

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

The Comforters

UNTIL thy feet have trod the Road

Advise not wayside folk,

Nor till thy back has borne the Load

Break in upon the broke.

Chase not with undesired largesse

Of sympathy the heart

Which, knowing her own bitterness,

Presumes to dwell apart.

Employ not that glad hand to raise

The God-forgotten head

To Heaven, and all the neighbours’ gaze—

Cover thy mouth instead.

The quivering chin, the bitten lip,

The cold and sweating brow,

Later may yearn for fellowship—

Not now, you ass, not now!

Time, not thy ne’er so timely speech,

Life, not thy views thereon,

Shall furnish or deny to each

His consolation.

Or, if impelled to interfere,

Exhort, uplift, advise,

Lend not a base, betraying ear

To all the victim’s cries.

Only the Lord can understand

When those first pangs begin,

How much is reflex action and

How much is really sin.

E’en from good words thyself refrain,

And tremblingly admit

There is no anodyne for pain

Except the shock of it.

So, when thine own dark hour shall fall,

Unchallenged canst thou say:

“I never worried you at all,

For God’s sake go away!”