Living
Kaa
From Songs from Books
Anger is the egg of Fear--
Only lidless eyes are clear.
Cobra-poison none may leech,
Even so with Cobra-speech.
Open talk shall call to thee
Strength, whose mate is Courtesy.
Send no lunge beyond thy length;
Lend no rotten bough thy strength.
Gauge thy gape with buck or goat,
Lest thine eye should choke thy throat
After gorging, wouldst thou sleep?
Look thy den be hid and deep,
Lest a wrong, by thee forgot,
Draw thy killer to the spot.
East and West and North and South,
Wash thy hide and close thy mouth.
(Pit and rift and blue pool-brim,
Middle-Jungle follow him!)
Wood and Water, Wind and Tree,
Jungle-Favour go with thee!
Codex Note
Outsong in the Jungle
Cite this poem
MLA
Kipling, Rudyard. “Kaa.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/kipling/284/.
Chicago
Kipling, Rudyard. “Kaa.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/kipling/284/.
Read this poem with the Codex →