The Servant When He Reigneth

[med_cat]

The Servant When He Reigneth


"For three things the earth is disquieted, and for four which it cannot bear. For a servant when he reigneth, and a fool when he is filled with meat; for an odious woman when she is married, and an handmaid that is heir to her mistress." -- PROV. XXX. 21-22-23.

Three things make earth unquiet
And four she cannot brook
The godly Augur counted them
And put them in a book --
Those Four Tremendous Curses
With which mankind is cursed;
But a Servant when He Reigneth
Old Augur entered first.

An Handmaid that is Mistress
We need not call upon.
A Fool when he is full of Meat
Will fall asleep anon.
An Odious Woman Married
May bear a babe and mend;
But a Servant when He Reigneth
Is Confusion to the end.

His feet are swift to tumult,
His hands are slow to toil,
His ears are deaf to reason,
His lips are loud in broil.
He knows no use for power
Except to show his might.
He gives no heed to judgment
Unless it prove him right.

Because he served a master
Before his Kingship came,
And hid in all disaster
Behind his master's name,
So, when his Folly opens
The unnecessary hells,
A Servant when He Reigneth
Throws the blame on some one else.

His vows are lightly spoken,
His faith is hard to bind,
His trust is easy broken,
He fears his fellow-kind.
The nearest mob will move him
To break the pledge he gave --
Oh, a Servant when he Reigneth
Is more than ever slave!

--Rudyard Kipling

Comments

[mme_n_b]

Maybe it's because he honestly believed himself not to be and thought that it's good. You know - a good person in the constraints of his time. After all, even in this poem he postulates that an Odious Woman may mend - much more than many of his contemporaries would do. And he was so careful to acknowledge the basic humanity of the savages, to note and praise their nobler qualities, and so proud and happy about Britain's complete victory over anti-Semitism.

[minoanmiss]

Yeah, I think you're right. "Female of the Species" is a good example. I once did a paper on anti-Suffrage sentiment in the last century, and I was struck by how most people were saying "women are too weak and stupid to be able to vote". Kipling said, "women are too strong and uncompromising to be allowed to vote". I can't help but be complimented (even though I want my vote).