THE REBEL

By Rudyard Kipling

If I had clamoured at Thy Gate

For gift of Life on Earth,

And, thrusting through the souls that wait,

Flung headlong into birth —

Even then, even then, for gin and snare

About my pathway spread,

Lord, I had mocked Thy thoughtful care

Before I joined the Dead!

But now?... I was beneath Thy Hand

Ere yet the Planets came.

And now — though Planets pass, I stand

The witness to Thy Shame.