Read "The Juggler's Song" by Rudyard Kipling online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
When the drums begin to beat / Down the street, / When the poles are fetched and guyed, / When the tight-rope's stretched and tied, / When the dance-girls make salaam, / When the snake-bag wakes alarm, / When the pipes set up their drone, / When the sharp-edged knives are thrown, / When the red-hot coals are shown, / To be swallowed by and bye -- / _Arre_ Brethren, here come I!
Stripped to loin-cloth in the sun, / Search me well and watch me close! / Tell me how my tricks are done -- / Tell me how the mango grows? / Give a man who is not made / To his trade / Swords to fling and catch again, / Coins to ring and snatch again, / Men to harm and cure again. / Snakes to charm and lure again -- / He'll be hurt by his own blade, / By his serpents disobeyed, / By his clumsiness bewrayed, / By the people laughed to scorn -- / So 'tis not with juggler born!
Pinch of dust or withered flower, / Chance-flung nut or borrowed staff, / Serve his need and shore his power, / Bind the spell or loose the laugh!