Prelude

(To Departmental Ditties)

I HAVE eaten your bread and salt.
  I have drunk your water and wine.
The deaths ye died I have watched beside,
  And the lives ye led were mine.

Was there aught that I did not share
  In vigil or toil or ease,—
One joy or woe that I did not know,
  Dear hearts across the seas?

I have written the tale of our life
  For a sheltered people’s mirth,
In jesting guise—but ye are wise,
  And ye know what the jest is worth.

Published in Rudyard Kipling's Verse: Inclusive Edition, 1885-1918

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