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Rudyard Kipling - JusticeRudyard Kipling - Justice
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Across a world where all men grieve  And grieving strive the more, The great days range like tides and leave  Our dead on every shore. Heavy the load we undergo,  And our own hands prepare, If we have parley with the foe,  The load our sons must bear. Before we loose the word  That bids new worlds to birth, Needs must we loosen first the sword  Of Justice upon earth; Or else all else is vain  Since life on earth began, And the spent world sinks back again  Hopeless of God and Man. A People and their King  Through ancient sin grown strong, Because they feared no reckoning  Would set no bound to wrong; But now their hour is past,  And we who bore it find Evil Incarnate hell at last  To answer to mankind. For agony and spoil  Of nations beat to dust, For poisoned air and tortured soil  And cold, commanded lust, And every secret woe  The shuddering waters saw. Willed and fulfilled by high and low.  Let them relearn the Low. That when the dooms are read,  Not high nor low shall say:— " My haughty or my humble head  Was saved me in this day." That, till the end of time,  Their remnant shall recall Their fathers old, confederate crime  Availed them not at all. That neither schools nor priests,  Nor Kings may build again A people with the heart of beasts  Made wise concerning men. Whereby our dead shall sleep  In honour, unbetrayed, And we in faith and honour keep  That peace for which they paid.
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