Letting In The Jungle


Letting In The Jungle

I will let loose against you the fleet-footed vines—
I will call in the Jungle to stamp out your lines!

The roofs shall fade before it,
The house-beams shall fall;
And the Karela, the bitter Karela,
Shall cover it all!

In the gates of these your councils my people shall sing.
In the doors of these your garners the Bat-folk shall cling;

And the snake shall be your watchman,
By a hearthstone unswept;
For the Karela, the bitter Karela,
Shall fruit where ye slept!

Ye shall not see my strikers; ye shall hear them and guess.
By night, before the moon-rise, I will send for my cess,

And the wolf shall be your herdsman
By a landmark removed;
For the Karela, the bitter Karela,
Shall seed where ye loved!

I will reap your fields before you at the hands of a host.
Ye shall glean behind my reapers for the bread that is lost;

And the deer shall be your oxen
On a headland untilled;
For the Karela, the bitter Karela,
Shall leaf where ye build!

I have untied against you the club-footed vines—
I have sent in the Jungle to swamp out your lines!

The trees--the trees are on you!
The house-beams shall fall;
And the Karela, the bitter Karela,
Shall cover you all!

Rudyard Kipling

Comments

  1. Sushama KarnikJuly 10, 2015 at 4:41 AM

    A great memory of Kipling:"Karela, bitter karela"!
    And what made him think like this?
    I enjoyed it thoroughly.
    Thanks Drew McCarthy

    ReplyDelete
  2. Timothy StreetJuly 10, 2015 at 6:50 AM

    Pop Kipling apparently knew about kudzu.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Drew McCarthyJuly 10, 2015 at 6:57 AM

    Kipling has fallen out of favor in modern times, hasn't he?  A victim of political correctness, since he was a proponent of British Imperialism and its implicit racism.
    But a very gifted writer, and a thumping good teller of stories.  It's a shame that many can't enjoy his art and condemn his worldview at the same time.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Meg LJuly 10, 2015 at 7:27 AM

    He was a man of his times. Lovely though to read his homage to the bitter melon, or ampalaya as we call it back home. If you turn your back on it, it takes over everything. I love the taste of it, but nothing will induce my husband and kids to eat it.

    Is that a clemmie colonising your beautiful rocker?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Drew McCarthyJuly 10, 2015 at 7:40 AM

    Meg L Maybe? Or a Sweet Pea? Or a Clem and a Sweet Pea?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Meg LJuly 10, 2015 at 7:56 AM

    Leaves don't look like sweet pea to me. Now if you were to sit in that chair and have a Rip Van Winkle-length nap you'd wake up with flowers in your hair, and then we could easily identify the climber. What say you?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Timothy StreetJuly 10, 2015 at 7:57 AM

    Well said, Drew McCarthy

    ReplyDelete
  8. Lia SchollJuly 13, 2015 at 4:54 PM

    You see such art everywhere. You're my hero.

    ReplyDelete

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