FEAR
by: Rudyard Kipling
- RE Mor the
Peacock flutters, ere the Monkey People cry,
- Ere Chil the Kite swoops down a furlong sheer,
- Through the Jungle very softly flits a Shadow and a sigh--
- He is Fear, O Little Hunter, he is Fear!
- Very softly down the glade runs a waiting, watching shade,
- And the whisper spreads and widens far and near;
- And the sweat is on thy brow, for he passes even now--
- He is Fear, O Little Hunter, he is Fear!
- Ere the Moon has climbed the mountain, ere the rocks are
ribbed with light,
- When the downward-dipping tails are dank and drear;
- Comes a breathing hard behind thee, snuffle-snuffle through
the night--
- It is Fear, O Little Hunter, it is Fear!
- On thy knees and draw the bow, bid the shrilling arrow go;
- In the empty mocking thicket plunge the spear;
- But thy hands are loosed and weak, and the blood has left
thy cheek--
- It is Fear, O Little Hunter, it is Fear!
-
- When the heat-cloud sucks the tempest, when the silvered
pine trees fall,
- When the blinding, blaring rain-squalls lash and veer;
- Through the trumpets of the thunder rings a voice more loud
than all--
- It is Fear, O Little Hunter, it is Fear!
- Now the spates are banked and deep; now the footless boulders
leap;
- Now the lightning shows each littlest leaf-rib clear;
- But thy throat is shut and dried, and thy heart against thy
side
- Hammers: Fear, O Little Hunter--this is Fear!
'Fear' is reprinted from An Anthology
of Modern Verse. Ed. A. Methuen. London: Methuen & Co.,
1921. |
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POEMS BY RUDYARD KIPLING |
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