Prelude
To “Departmental Ditties”
1885
by Rudyard Kipling
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 ought 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.
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