Rudyard Kipling

"To Be Filed For Reference"--Plain Tales From the Hills


    By the Hoof of the Wild Goat uptossed
    From the cliff where she lay in the Sun
    Fell the Stone
    To the Tarn where the daylight is lost,
    So she fell from the light of the Sun
    And alone!

    Now the fall was ordained from the first
    With the Goat and the Cliff and the Tarn,
    But the Stone
    Knows only her life is accursed
    As she sinks from the light of the Sun
    And alone!

    Oh Thou Who hast builded the World,
    Oh Thou Who hast lighted the Sun,
    Oh Thou Who hast darkened the Tarn,
    Judge Thou
    The sin of the Stone that was hurled
    By the goat from the light of the Sun,
    As she sinks in the mire of the Tarn,
    Even now--even now--even now!