This week’s choice is “Non Nobis Domine” by Rudyard Kipling which I have chosen to mark VE Day.
For these we undergo
Rudyard Kipling (1865—1936)
Our hot and godless days,
But in our hearts we know
Not unto us the Praise.
Poem 386. Non Nobis Domine
Non nobis Domine!—
Not unto us, O Lord!
The Praise or Glory be
Of any deed or word;
For in Thy Judgment lies
To crown or bring to nought
All knowledge or device
That Man has reached or wrought.
And we confess our blame—
How all too high we hold
That noise which men call Fame,
That dross which men call Gold.
For these we undergo
Our hot and godless days,
But in our hearts we know
Not unto us the Praise.
O Power by Whom we live—
Creator, Judge, and Friend,
Upholdingly forgive
Nor fail us at the end:
But grant us well to see
In all our piteous ways—
Non nobis Domine!—
Not unto us the Praise!
In 1934, Kipling was involved in writing “The Pageant of Parliament”, a celebration of the history of Parliament and the British people since the signing of Magna Carta. This is one of the poems he wrote, and it provides a sobering admonishment to anyone brash enough to claim success as due solely to their own efforts, or those of a narrow selection of people.
No single person or people can claim such a success, and that is the message of this poem, in which Kipling echoes Shakespeare’s words of King Henry V at the end of the battle of Agincourt.
When the heralds bring him a note of those slain on the field of battle, where ten thousand French are set against less than three dozen English names, Henry is stunned and can only assert his belief that God fought on the side of the English. He proclaims that the victory is due only to God’s will and decrees that boasting of it or taking “the praise from God, which is His only” is to be a capital offence. He ends thus:
KING HENRY V
Do we all holy rites;
Henry V, Act 4, Scene 8
Let there be sung ‘Non nobis’ and ‘Te Deum;’
“Non nobis” is a Latin translation from the Book of Psalms (Psalm 113:9): “Non nobis, Domine, non nobis, sed nomini tuo da gloriam” which is translated in the King James version of the Bible as “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to thy name give the glory.”
Returning to Kipling’s poem, we see the same sentiment: “Not unto us, O Lord!/The Praise or Glory be/Of any deed or word”—in Kipling’s view, the achievements of mankind are only made by the will of God, so it is hubris to claim them for ourselves.
He reminds us that we are too often deceived into striving for “That noise which men call Fame/That dross which men call Gold” but we know in our hearts that we are undeserving of praise since we have not achieved what we have in isolation—always we have help in some way or another, and this can only be ascribed to our Creator.
He concludes with a kind of prayer to God to forgive us our arrogance and brash overconfidence and show us clearly that we do not reach our goals without the support of others.
Even without believing in the existence of a Creator, this is an important message: whether we credit our success to others, or to our chosen God, we cannot claim that it is due solely to ourselves.
It seems appropriate to mark VE Day with this poem, as Victory in Europe came only through the hard and unstinting efforts of many people with different nationalities, classes, religions (or absence thereof), and outlooks.
I like it because it underlines something I feel strongly, without any religious belief: we can achieve our goals only by working together and division and strife militate against our best efforts.
There is a performance of Roger Quilter’s musical setting of Kipling’s words by the Fort Lewis College Men’s Choir on YouTube, and also a clip from the end of Kenneth Branagh’s film of “Henry V” which ends with the English army singing “Non nobis”.