A Ballade of Jakko Hill

From Free media library

<Author:Rudyard Kipling/Complete Poetry

A Ballade of Jakko Hill

One moment bid the horses wait,
    Since tiffin is not laid till three,
Below the upward path and strait
    You climbed a year ago with me.
    Love came upon us suddenly
    And loosed--an idle hour to kill--
A headless, harmless armory
    That smote us both on Jakko Hill.

Ah, Heaven! we would wait and wait
    Through Time and to Eternity!
Ah, Heaven! we could conquer Fate
    With more than Godlike constancy
    I cut the date upon a tree--
    Here stand the clumsy figures still:
"10-7-85, A.D."
    Damp in the mists on Jakko Hill.

What came of high resolve and great,
    And until Death fidelity?
Whose horse is waiting at your gate?
    Whose 'rickshaw-wheels ride over me?
    No Saint's, I swear; and--let me see
    To-night what names your programme fill--
We drift asunder merrily,
    As drifts the mist on Jakko Hill.

                        L'ENVOI
Princess, behold our ancient state
    Has clean departed; and we see
'Twas Idleness we took for Fate
    That bound light bonds on you and me.
    Amen! Here ends the comedy
    Where it began in all good will,
Since Love and Leave together flee
    As driven mist on Jakko Hill!