FEAR

by: Rudyard Kipling

RE Mor the Peacock flutters, ere the Monkey People cry,

Ere Chil the Kite swoops down a furlong sheer,

Through the Jungle very softly flits a Shadow and a sigh--

He is Fear, O Little Hunter, he is Fear!

Very softly down the glade runs a waiting, watching shade,

And the whisper spreads and widens far and near;

And the sweat is on thy brow, for he passes even now--

He is Fear, O Little Hunter, he is Fear!

Ere the Moon has climbed the mountain, ere the rocks are ribbed with light,

When the downward-dipping tails are dank and drear;

Comes a breathing hard behind thee, snuffle-snuffle through the night--

It is Fear, O Little Hunter, it is Fear!

On thy knees and draw the bow, bid the shrilling arrow go;

In the empty mocking thicket plunge the spear;

But thy hands are loosed and weak, and the blood has left thy cheek--

It is Fear, O Little Hunter, it is Fear!

 

When the heat-cloud sucks the tempest, when the silvered pine trees fall,

When the blinding, blaring rain-squalls lash and veer;

Through the trumpets of the thunder rings a voice more loud than all--

It is Fear, O Little Hunter, it is Fear!

Now the spates are banked and deep; now the footless boulders leap;

Now the lightning shows each littlest leaf-rib clear;

But thy throat is shut and dried, and thy heart against thy side

Hammers: Fear, O Little Hunter--this is Fear!

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