Read "Sestina of the Tramp-Royal" by Rudyard Kipling online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Speakin' in general, I 'ave tried 'em all, / The 'appy roads that take you o'er the world. / Speakin' in general, I 'ave found them good / For such as cannot use one bed too long, / But must get 'ence, the same as I 'ave done, / An' go observin' matters till they die.
What do it matter where or 'ow we die, / So long as we've our 'ealth to watch it all -- / The different ways that different things are done, / An' men an' women lovin' in this world -- / Takin' our chances as they come along, / An' when they ain't, pretendin' they are good?
In cash or credit -- no, it aren't no good; / You 'ave to 'ave the 'abit or you'd die, / Unless you lived your life but one day long, / Nor didn't prophesy nor fret at all, / But drew your tucker some'ow from the world, / An' never bothered what you might ha' done.
But, Gawd, what things are they I 'aven't done? / I've turned my 'and to most, an' turned it good, / In various situations round the world -- / For 'im that doth not work must surely die; / But that's no reason man should labour all / 'Is life on one same shift; life's none so long.
Therefore, from job to job I've moved along. / Pay couldn't 'old me when my time was done, / For something in my 'ead upset me all, / Till I 'ad dropped whatever 'twas for good, / An', out at sea, be'eld the dock-lights die, / An' met my mate -- the wind that tramps the world!
It's like a book, I think, this bloomin' world, / Which you can read and care for just so long, / But presently you feel that you will die / Unless you get the page you're readin' done, / An' turn another -- likely not so good; / But what you're after is to turn 'em all.
Gawd bless this world! Whatever she 'ath done -- / Excep' when awful long -- I've found it good. / So write, before I die, "E liked it all! "