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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=511176" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Tomlinson</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">Now Tomlinson gave up the ghost in his house in Berkeley Square,<br>And a Spirit came to his bedside and gripped him by the hair --<br>A Spirit gripped him by the hair and carried him far away,<br>Till he heard as the roar of a rain-fed ford the roar of the Milky Way:<br>Till he heard the roar of the Milky Way die down and drone and cease,<br>And they came to the Gate within the Wall where Peter holds the keys.<br>"Stand up, stand up now, Tomlinson, and answer loud and high<br>The good that ye did for the sake of men or ever ye came to die --<br>The good that ye did for the sake of men in little earth so lone!"<br>And the naked soul of Tomlinson grew white as a rain-washed bone.<br>"O I have a friend on earth," he said, "that was my priest and guide,<br>And well would he answer all for me if he were by my side."<br>-- "For that ye strove in neighbour-love it shall be written fair,<br>But now ye wait at Heaven's Gate and not in Berkeley Square:<br>Though we called your friend from his bed this night,<br> he could not speak for you,<br>For the race is run by one and one and never by two and two."<br>Then Tomlinson looked up and down, and little gain was there,<br>For the naked stars grinned overhead, and he saw that his soul was bare:<br>The Wind that blows between the worlds, it cut him like a knife,<br>And Tomlinson took up his tale and spoke of his good in life.<br>"This I have read in a book," he said, "and that was told to me,<br>And this I have thought that another man thought of a Prince in Muscovy."<br>The good souls flocked like homing doves and bade him clear the path,<br>And Peter twirled the jangling keys in weariness and wrath.<br>"Ye have read, ye have heard, ye have thought," he said,<br> "and the tale is yet to run:<br>By the worth of the body that once ye had, give answer -- what ha' ye done?"<br>Then Tomlinson looked back and forth, and little good it bore,<br>For the Darkness stayed at his shoulder-blade and Heaven's Gate before: --<br>"O this I have felt, and this I have guessed, and this I have heard men say,<br>And this they wrote that another man wrote of a carl in Norroway."<br>-- "Ye have read, ye have felt, ye have guessed, good lack!<br> Ye have hampered Heaven's Gate;<br>There's little room between the stars in idleness to prate!<br>O none may reach by hired speech of neighbour, priest, and kin<br>Through borrowed deed to God's good meed that lies so fair within;<br>Get hence, get hence to the Lord of Wrong, for doom has yet to run,<br>And. . .the faith that ye share with Berkeley Square uphold you, Tomlinson!"<br> <br> . . . . .<br> <br>The Spirit gripped him by the hair, and sun by sun they fell<br>Till they came to the belt of Naughty Stars that rim the mouth of Hell:<br>The first are red with pride and wrath, the next are white with pain,<br>But the third are black with clinkered sin that cannot burn again:<br>They may hold their path, they may leave their path,<br> with never a soul to mark,<br>They may burn or freeze, but they must not cease<br> in the Scorn of the Outer Dark.<br>The Wind that blows between the worlds, it nipped him to the bone,<br>And he yearned to the flare of Hell-Gate<br> there as the light of his own hearth-stone.<br>The Devil he sat behind the bars, where the desperate legions drew,<br>But he caught the hasting Tomlinson and would not let him through.<br>"Wot ye the price of good pit-coal that I must pay?" said he,<br>"That ye rank yoursel' so fit for Hell and ask no leave of me?<br>I am all o'er-sib to Adam's breed that ye should give me scorn,<br>For I strove with God for your First Father the day that he was born.<br>Sit down, sit down upon the slag, and answer loud and high<br>The harm that ye did to the Sons of Men or ever you came to die."<br>And Tomlinson looked up and up, and saw against the night<br>The belly of a tortured star blood-red in Hell-Mouth light;<br>And Tomlinson looked down and down, and saw beneath his feet<br>The frontlet of a tortured star milk-white in Hell-Mouth heat.<br>"O I had a love on earth," said he, "that kissed me to my fall,<br>And if ye would call my love to me I know she would answer all."<br>-- "All that ye did in love forbid it shall be written fair,<br>But now ye wait at Hell-Mouth Gate and not in Berkeley Square:<br>Though we whistled your love from her bed to-night, I trow she would not run,<br>For the sin ye do by two and two ye must pay for one by one!"<br>The Wind that blows between the worlds, it cut him like a knife,<br>And Tomlinson took up the tale and spoke of his sin in life: --<br>"Once I ha' laughed at the power of Love and twice at the grip of the Grave,<br>And thrice I ha' patted my God on the head that men might call me brave."<br>The Devil he blew on a brandered soul and set it aside to cool: --<br>"Do ye think I would waste my good pit-coal on the hide of a brain-sick fool?<br>I see no worth in the hobnailed mirth or the jolthead jest ye did<br>That I should waken my gentlemen that are sleeping three on a grid."<br>Then Tomlinson looked back and forth, and there was little grace,<br>For Hell-Gate filled the houseless Soul with the Fear of Naked Space.<br>"Nay, this I ha' heard," quo' Tomlinson, "and this was noised abroad,<br>And this I ha' got from a Belgian book on the word of a dead French lord."<br>-- "Ye ha' heard, ye ha' read, ye ha' got, good lack!<br> and the tale begins afresh --<br>Have ye sinned one sin for the pride o' the eye<br> or the sinful lust of the flesh?"<br>Then Tomlinson he gripped the bars and yammered, "Let me in --<br>For I mind that I borrowed my neighbour's wife to sin the deadly sin."<br>The Devil he grinned behind the bars, and banked the fires high:<br>"Did ye read of that sin in a book?" said he; and Tomlinson said, "Ay!"<br>The Devil he blew upon his nails, and the little devils ran,<br>And he said: "Go husk this whimpering thief that comes in the guise of a man:<br>Winnow him out 'twixt star and star, and sieve his proper worth:<br>There's sore decline in Adam's line if this be spawn of earth."<br>Empusa's crew, so naked-new they may not face the fire,<br>But weep that they bin too small to sin to the height of their desire,<br>Over the coal they chased the Soul, and racked it all abroad,<br>As children rifle a caddis-case or the raven's foolish hoard.<br>And back they came with the tattered Thing, as children after play,<br>And they said: "The soul that he got from God he has bartered clean away.<br>We have threshed a stook of print and book, and winnowed a chattering wind<br>And many a soul wherefrom he stole, but his we cannot find:<br>We have handled him, we have dandled him, we have seared him to the bone,<br>And sure if tooth and nail show truth he has no soul of his own."<br>The Devil he bowed his head on his breast and rumbled deep and low: --<br>"I'm all o'er-sib to Adam's breed that I should bid him go.<br>Yet close we lie, and deep we lie, and if I gave him place,<br>My gentlemen that are so proud would flout me to my face;<br>They'd call my house a common stews and me a careless host,<br>And -- I would not anger my gentlemen for the sake of a shiftless ghost."<br>The Devil he looked at the mangled Soul that prayed to feel the flame,<br>And he thought of Holy Charity, but he thought of his own good name: --<br>"Now ye could haste my coal to waste, and sit ye down to fry:<br>Did ye think of that theft for yourself?" said he; and Tomlinson said, "Ay!"<br>The Devil he blew an outward breath, for his heart was free from care: --<br>"Ye have scarce the soul of a louse," he said,<br> "but the roots of sin are there,<br>And for that sin should ye come in were I the lord alone.<br>But sinful pride has rule inside -- and mightier than my own.<br>Honour and Wit, fore-damned they sit, to each his priest and whore:<br>Nay, scarce I dare myself go there, and you they'd torture sore.<br>Ye are neither spirit nor spirk," he said; "ye are neither book nor brute --<br>Go, get ye back to the flesh again for the sake of Man's repute.<br>I'm all o'er-sib to Adam's breed that I should mock your pain,<br>But look that ye win to worthier sin ere ye come back again.<br>Get hence, the hearse is at your door -- the grim black stallions wait --<br>They bear your clay to place to-day. Speed, lest ye come too late!<br>Go back to Earth with a lip unsealed -- go back with an open eye,<br>And carry my word to the Sons of Men or ever ye come to die:<br>That the sin they do by two and two they must pay for one by one --<br>And. . .the God that you took from a printed book be with you, Tomlinson!"</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Rudyard+Kipling">Rudyard Kipling</a><div class=q> <img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share"> <script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=511176" data-title="Tomlinson de Rudyard Kipling" data-description="Now Tomlinson gave up the ghost in his house in Berkeley Square, And a Spirit came to his bedside and gripped him by the hair -- A Spirit gripped him by the hair and carried him far away, Till he heard as the roar of a rain-fed ford the roar of th..."></div> </div> </div>
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