Explore "Mandalay" by Rudyard Kipling on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
By the old Moulmein Pagoda, lookin' eastward to the sea, / There's a Burma girl a-settin', and I know she thinks o' me; / For the wind is in the palm-trees, and the temple-bells they say: / "Come you back, you British soldier; come you back to Mandalay! " / Come you back to Mandalay, / Where the old Flotilla lay: / Can't you 'ear their paddles chunkin' from Rangoon to Mandalay? / On the road to Mandalay, / Where the flyin'-fishes play, / An' the dawn comes up like thunder outer China 'crost the Bay!
'Er petticoat was yaller an' 'er little cap was green, / An' 'er name was Supi-yaw-lat -- jes' the same as Theebaw's Queen, / An' I seed her first a-smokin' of a whackin' white cheroot, / An' a-wastin' Christian kisses on an 'eathen idol's foot: / Bloomin' idol made o'mud -- / Wot they called the Great Gawd Budd -- / Plucky lot she cared for idols when I kissed 'er where she stud! / On the road to Mandalay . . .