Explore "The Verdicts" by Rudyard Kipling on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
(JUTLAND)
Not in the thick of the fight, / Not in the press of the odds, / Do the heroes come to their height, / Or we know the demi-gods.
That stands over till peace. / We can only perceive / Men returned from the seas, / Very grateful for leave.
They grant us sudden days / Snatched from their business of war; / But we are too close to appraise / What manner of men they are.
And, whether their names go down / With age-kept victories, / Or whether they battle and drown / Unreckoned, is hid from our eyes.
They are too near to be great, / But our children shall understand / When and how our fate / Was changed, and by whose hand.
Our children shall measure their worth. / We are content to be blind / But we know that we walk on a new-born earth / With the saviours of mankind.