Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The Servant When He Reigneth [A poem by Rudyard Kipling
Poem Hunter ^ | Rudyard Kipling

Posted on 12/24/2009 10:03:50 PM PST by Slings and Arrows

For three things the earth is disquieted, and for four which it cannot bear. For a servant when he reigneth, and a fool when he is filled with meat; for an odious woman when she is married, and an handmaid that is heir to her mistress. -- Prov. XXX. 21-22-23.


Three things make earth unquiet
And four she cannot brook
The godly Agur counted them
And put them in a book --
Those Four Tremendous Curses
With which mankind is cursed;
But a Servant when He Reigneth
Old Agur entered first.
An Handmaid that is Mistress
We need not call upon.
A Fool when he is full of Meat
Will fall asleep anon.
An Odious Woman Married
May bear a babe and mend;
But a Servant when He Reigneth
Is Confusion to the end.

His feet are swift to tumult,
His hands are slow to toil,
His ears are deaf to reason,
His lips are loud in broil.
He knows no use for power
Except to show his might.
He gives no heed to judgment
Unless it prove him right.

Because he served a master
Before his Kingship came,
And hid in all disaster
Behind his master's name,
So, when his Folly opens
The unnecessary hells,
A Servant when He Reigneth
Throws the blame on some one else.

His vows are lightly spoken,
His faith is hard to bind,
His trust is easy boken,
He fears his fellow-kind.
The nearest mob will move him
To break the pledge he gave --
Oh, a Servant when he Reigneth
Is more than ever slave!


TOPICS: Poetry; Society
KEYWORDS: kipling
Sound like anybody we know?
1 posted on 12/24/2009 10:03:51 PM PST by Slings and Arrows
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Slings and Arrows

thank you so much for the post!


2 posted on 12/24/2009 10:06:25 PM PST by GOP Poet (Obama is an OLYMPIC failure.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: GOP Poet

You’re very welcome. I’m a big Kipling fan.


3 posted on 12/24/2009 10:08:51 PM PST by Slings and Arrows ("The solution to every ill is a cat." --TheOldLady)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Slings and Arrows

Uncanny Bump


4 posted on 12/24/2009 10:24:15 PM PST by higgmeister ( From the Shadow of The Big Chicken!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: higgmeister

It IS uncanny. Damn.


5 posted on 12/24/2009 10:34:29 PM PST by Slings and Arrows ("The solution to every ill is a cat." --TheOldLady)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Slings and Arrows; shibumi; Salamander

The Servant When He Reigneth



Nobel Hoax

6 posted on 12/24/2009 10:43:36 PM PST by Semper Mark ("Brevity is the soul of wit." Besides, I only have so much tagline space.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Markos33; Salamander; shibumi

Gee, what made you think of him? ;^)


7 posted on 12/24/2009 10:45:48 PM PST by Slings and Arrows ("The solution to every ill is a cat." --TheOldLady)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Markos33; Slings and Arrows; Salamander

So lemme see ... What we got here is a Fool Reiging while married to an Odious Mistress with his belly full of Waygu beef .....

Damn, he just about covered all the bases!


8 posted on 12/24/2009 10:50:13 PM PST by shibumi (" ..... then we will fight in the shade.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Slings and Arrows

9 posted on 12/24/2009 10:54:52 PM PST by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Slings and Arrows; Salamander; Markos33
Gee, what made me think of this?




10 posted on 12/24/2009 11:05:54 PM PST by shibumi (" ..... then we will fight in the shade.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: JoeProBono

We’re Number One!


11 posted on 12/24/2009 11:14:05 PM PST by Slings and Arrows ("The solution to every ill is a cat." --TheOldLady)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Slings and Arrows
Rudyard, Rudyard!!
Bully Bully!!
12 posted on 12/25/2009 2:53:37 AM PST by ARepublicanForAllReasons (Give 'em hell, Sarah!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Slings and Arrows

When was Obama ever a “servant”?


13 posted on 12/25/2009 8:44:21 AM PST by Dan Middleton
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Dan Middleton

Frank Marshal Davis, Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, George Soros...


14 posted on 12/25/2009 9:02:48 AM PST by Slings and Arrows ("The solution to every ill is a cat." --TheOldLady)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Slings and Arrows

The unsavory nature of all of those guys aside, by this standard anybody who ever had a mentor figure or worked under someone else’s authority was a “servant.”


15 posted on 12/25/2009 7:56:45 PM PST by Dan Middleton
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: Dan Middleton

Here’s the difference: Free men and women in a free society serve no master, but perhaps God; people drawn to the collective are never free.


16 posted on 12/25/2009 8:10:40 PM PST by meadsjn (Sarah 2012, or sooner)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Dan Middleton; Slings and Arrows; meadsjn
The unsavory nature of all of those guys aside, by this standard anybody who ever had a mentor figure or worked under someone else’s authority was a “servant.”

Some may say, servant of Marxist ideology, servant of Islamic hegemony, servant of selfinterest, servant of mediocrity or servant of Satan.

Any one might be Spot-on!

17 posted on 12/26/2009 2:06:40 PM PST by higgmeister ( From the Shadow of The Big Chicken!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Slings and Arrows

I would not know, I’ve never Kippled


18 posted on 12/30/2009 1:04:59 AM PST by HiTech RedNeck (I am in America but not of America.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Dan Middleton; Slings and Arrows
When was Obama ever a “servant”?

When he fell to the feet of William Ayers and swore fealty to him and his cause.

19 posted on 01/22/2010 7:46:06 PM PST by NicknamedBob (If we did not believe we could not die, we would never do the things that make us immortal.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: NicknamedBob

Yep.


20 posted on 01/22/2010 8:06:40 PM PST by Slings and Arrows (Don't feed the trolls.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson