Read "France" by Rudyard Kipling online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
1913.
_Broke to every known mischance, lifted over all / By the light sane joy of life, the buckler of the Gaul; / Furious in luxury, merciless in toil, / Terrible with strength that draws from her tireless soil; / Strictest judge of her own worth, gentlest of man's mind, / First to follow Truth and last to leave old Truths behind -- / France, beloved of every soul that loves its fellow-kind! _