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Title: The Runners
Author: Rudyard Kipling [
More Titles by Kipling]
_News!_
What is the word that they tell now--now--now!
The little drums beating in the bazaars?
_They_ beat (among the buyers and sellers)
_"Nimrud--ah Nimrud!
God sends a gnat against Nimrud_!"
Watchers, O Watchers a thousand!
_News!_
At the edge of the crops--now--now--where the well-wheels are halted,
One prepares to loose the bullocks and one scrapes his hoe,
_They_ beat (among the sowers and the reapers)
_"Nimrud--ah Nimrud!
God prepares an ill day for Nimrud_!"
Watchers, O Watchers ten thousand.
_News!_
By the fires of the camps--now--now--where the travellers meet
Where the camels come in and the horses: their men conferring,
_They_ beat (among the packmen and the drivers)
_"Nimrud--ah Nimrud!
Thus it befell last noon to Nimrud_!"
Watchers, O Watchers an hundred thousand!
_News!_
Under the shadow of the border-peels--now--now--now!
In the rocks of the passes where the expectant shoe their horses,
_They_ beat (among the rifles and the riders)
_"Nimrud--ah Nimrud!
Shall we go up against Nimrud_?"
Watchers, O Watchers a thousand thousand?
_News!_
Bring out the heaps of grain--open the account-books again!
Drive forward the well-bullocks against the taxable harvest!
Eat and lie under the trees--pitch the police-guarded fair-grounds,
O dancers!
Hide away the rifles and let down the ladders from the watch-towers!
_They_ beat (among all the peoples)
_"Now--now--now!
God has reserved the Sword for Nimrud!
God has given Victory to Nimrud!"
Let us abide under Nimrud_!"
O Well-disposed and Heedful, an hundred thousand thousand!
[The end]
Rudyard Kipling's poem: Runners
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