Monday, May 21, 2018
Worlds Apart
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936), "Two Races," Complete Verse (New York: Anchor Books, 1989), p. 821:
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I seek not what his soul desires.Related post: Flocking Together.
He dreads not what my spirit fears.
Our Heavens have shown us separate fires.
Our dooms have dealt us differing years.
Our daysprings and our timeless dead
Ordained for us and still control
Lives sundered at the fountain-head,
And distant, now, as Pole from Pole.
Yet, dwelling thus, these worlds apart,
When we encounter each is free
To bare that larger, liberal heart
Our kin and neighbours seldom see.
(Custom and code compared in jest —
Weakness delivered without shame —
And certain common sins confessed
Which all men know, and none dare blame.)
E'en so it is, and well content
It should be so a moment's space,
Each finds the other excellent,
And — runs to follow his own race!
