Poem by Rudyard Kipling

To James Whitcomb Riley

                 1890

On Receiving a Copy of His Rhymes for Children

Your trail runs to the westward,
  And mine to my own place;
There is water between our lodges,
  And I have not seen your face.

But since I have read your verses
  'Tis easy to  guess the rest,--
Because in the hearts of the children
  There is neither East nor West.

Born to a thousand fortunes
  Of good or evil hap,
Once they were kings together,
  Throned in a mother's lap.

Surely they know that secret--
  Yellow and black and white--
When they meet as kings together
  In innocent dreams at night.

By a moon they all can play with--
  Grubby and grimed and unshod,
Very happy together,
  And very near to God.

Your trail runs to the westward,
  And mine to my own place:
There is water between our lodges,
  And you cannot see my face.--

And that is well--for crying
  Should neither be written nor seen,
But if I call you Smoke-in-the-Eyes,
 I know you will know what I mean.

1. The First Chantey
2. The Last of the Light Brigade
3. «Limits and Renewals». 1932. 12. The Threshold
4. «Angutivaun Taina»
5. Merrow Down

Henry Van Dyke To James Whitcomb Riley ("On his ”Book of Joyous Children”")

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