Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936). Verse: 1885–1918. 1922.
The Necessitarian
I
To empty upon earth
From unsuspected ambuscade
The very Urns of Mirth;
And cheer our solemn round—
The Jest beheld with streaming eyes
And grovellings on the ground;
Behind the prey preferred,
And thrones on Shrieking Circumstance
The Sacredly Absurd,
Waves mute appeal and sore,
Above the midriff’s deep distress,
For breath to laugh once more.
No raptured choirs proclaim,
And Nature’s strenuous Overword
Hath nowhere breathed His Name.
The selfsame Power bestows
The selfsame power as went to shape
His Planet or His Rose.