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

Prelude

(To Departmental Ditties)

I HAVE eaten your bread and salt.

I have drunk your water and wine.

The deaths ye died I have watched beside,

And the lives ye led were mine.

Was there aught that I did not share

In vigil or toil or ease,—

One joy or woe that I did not know,

Dear hearts across the seas?

I have written the tale of our life

For a sheltered people’s mirth,

In jesting guise—but ye are wise,

And ye know what the jest is worth.