This week’s choice is “Recessional” which was written by Rudyard Kipling for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee and it marks the coronation of King Charles III last weekend.
Far-called, our navies melt away;
Rudyard Kipling (1865—1936)
On dune and headland sinks the fire:
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Poem 267. Recessional
God of our fathers, known of old,
Lord of our far-flung battle-line,
Beneath whose awful Hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine—
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!
The tumult and the shouting dies;
The Captains and the Kings depart:
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!
Far-called, our navies melt away;
On dune and headland sinks the fire:
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!
If, drunk with sight of power, we loose
Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe,
Such boastings as the Gentiles use,
Or lesser breeds without the Law—
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!
For heathen heart that puts her trust
In reeking tube and iron shard,
All valiant dust that builds on dust,
And guarding, calls not Thee to guard,
For frantic boast and foolish word—
Thy mercy on Thy People, Lord!
Kipling wrote this poem at the last minute when celebrations of Queen Victoria’s jubilee were coming to an end and it’s more of a reflection on the transience of power than a celebration of the monarch’s reign.
The first stanza begins with the appeal to “God of our fathers”, stressing the permanence of God who is “known of old” and emphasising that the possession of the Empire is held by Britain under God’s “awful hand” (meaning awe-inspiring rather than the common modern meaning of horrible or shoddy). The stanza, like those following, ends with an exhortation to “Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet/Lest we forget—lest we forget!” Kipling is warning that the shining gift of Empire is only held through the Creator—those that lose sight of this, lose their moral right to hold such power.
The second stanza foretells the end of the Empire as “The tumult and the shouting dies”, a prospect that must have seemed ridiculous and fantastic when the poem was published in 1897 but which seems quite prescient now. It also suggests the Jubilee drawing to a close and Kipling asserts that even though “The Captains and the Kings depart” we must remember the “ancient sacrifice, an humble and a contrite heart”: humility and the desire for forgiveness are older and surer than any Empire.
The third stanza pursues this theme to its conclusion as “our navies melt away” and “all our pomp of yesterday/Is one with Nineveh and Tyre”—ancient cities with little of the trappings of the Assyrian and Phoenician empires they once ruled.
The fourth stanza warns against arrogance “drunk with sight of power” and boasting “Such boasts as the Gentiles use/Or lesser breeds without the Law” with Gentiles in this case standing for those who “have not Thee in awe” rather than the strict meaning of the term. In the same way, “lesser breeds without the Law” isn’t a reference to criminals but an implication that those who stray from the Law (the need for humility and deference to their Creator) are a lesser breed.
The fifth stanza is an attack on the jingoism that was rife at the time: “For heathen heart that puts her trust/In reeking tube and iron shard”—a reference to those who would exercise power through the gun barrel and grenade; the next lines “All valiant dust that builds on dust/And guarding, calls not Thee to guard” address those defenders of the people who may be courageous to the point of destruction (the poem suggests the funereal phrase “ashes to ashes, dust to dust”) but fail to seek their defence in God, and for these, and for the foolish and foolhardy, the poem begs for mercy.
The words “Lest we forget” derive from the Bible (Deuteromony 6,12) and have become a formula at services of remembrance throughout the world. The poem has been set to music and is sung as a hymn on Anzac Day (25 April) in Australia and New Zealand.
I like it because it is an unusual poem for Kipling who celebrated and supported the Empire; in this poem, he is warning against complacency and arrogance and advocating humility and mercy.