The Tory: Perspectives And Poems: Dr Pratt Datta

A Death-Bed By Rudyard Kipling   1918   "This is the State above the Law.      The State exists for the State alone."  [This is a gland at the back of the jaw,      And an answering lump by the collar-bone.]    Some die shouting in gas or fire;      Some die silent, by shell and shot.  Some die desperate, caught on the wire;      Some die suddenly. This will not.    "Regis suprema voluntas Lex"      [It will follow the regular course of—throats.]  Some die pinned by the broken decks,      Some die sobbing between the boats.    Some die eloquent, pressed to death      By the sliding trench as their friends can hear.  Some die wholly in half a breath.      Some—give trouble for half a year.    "There is neither Evil nor Good in life.      Except as the needs of the State ordain."  [Since it is rather too late for the knife,      All we can do is mask the pain.]    Some die saintly in faith and hope—      Some die thus in a prison-yard—  Some die broken by rape or the rope;      Some die easily. This