PUCK'S SONG BY 

 RUDYARD KIPLING 



PUCK'S SONG, included by Mr Rudyard Kipling in his 

 famous " Puck of Pook's Hill," is so much after my own 

 heart, as certain sections of my " Life " herein recorded will 

 show, that, with the famous writer's kind permission, I am 

 enabled to preface my own chapters with it here. 



It seems to me that Mr Kipling has set out in a few brief 

 lines, as only he could do, an ingenious narration of the whole 

 history of England. Its intelligent reading quickens the 

 senses, and stirs one's finer feelings to their utmost depths. 



Here is Puck's wonderful oration : 



" See you the dimpled track that runs, 



All hollow through the wheat ? 

 O that was where they hauled the guns 

 That smote King Philip's fleet. 



See you our little mill that clacks 



So busy by the brook ? 

 She has ground her corn and paid her tax 



Ever since Domesday Book. 



See you our stilly woods of oak, 



And the dread ditch beside ? 

 that was where the Saxons broke, 



On the day that Harold died. 



See you the windy levels spread 



About the gates of Rye ? 

 O that was where the Northmen fled, 



When Alfred's ships came by. 



And see you, after rain, the trace 



Of mound and ditch and wall ? 

 that was a Legion's camping-place, 



When Caesar sailed from Gaul. 



And see you marks that show and fade, 



Like shadows on the Downs ? 

 O they are the lines the Flint Men made, 



To guard their wondrous towns. 



