Spiritual Sunday
Tomorrow is Armistice Day so I’m posting the poetic origin of the phrase “Lest we forget,” which will appear in many services honoring our veterans. I learn from Wikipedia that the poem where it appears, Rudyard Kipling’s “Recessional,” was written for Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee in 1897 and that it was a substitute entry. Apparently, Kipling had first been prepared to contribute what we now consider to be his most infamous poem, “Take Up the White Man’s Burden.”
I find the substitution fascinating. Although Kipling is a lot more sensitive to multicultural issues than we used to think (see his novel Kim for instance), “Take Up the White Man’s Burden” still is paternalistic and colonialist. In fact, he sent it to Theodore Roosevelt a couple of years later to support him in the nakedly imperialistic Spanish American War.
“Receissional,” however, expresses some salutary cautions. Kipling appears worried that, as we launch into our “far-flung battle line,” we will become “drunk with sight of power” and will put our trust “in reeking tube and iron shard.” When he talks about “heathen hearts,” I don’t think he has in mind non-Christians but rather those who lose sight of spiritual values. They are but “valiant dust that builds on dust.”
Applying the poem more specifically, Kipling can be seen as rather daring. Brittania may rule the waves and Queen Victoria may rule over a far-flung empire upon which the sun never sets, yet Kipling is marking her jubilee by warning that “our navies [will] melt away” and that one day all our pomp will be like Nineveh and Tyre.
In other words, rather than writing a jingoistic patriotic poem for a jingoistic patriotic occasion, Kipling becomes reflective and asks that the “God of our fathers, known of old” help us remember what is truly important. As we remember the horrors of war, may we move into the future with “an humble and a contrite heart.”
God of our fathers, known of old—
Lord of our far-flung battle line—
Beneath whose awful hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine—
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!
The tumult and the shouting dies—
The Captains and the Kings depart—
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!
Far-called our navies melt away—
On dune and headland sinks the fire—
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!
If, drunk with sight of power, we loose
Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe—
Such boastings as the Gentiles use,
Or lesser breeds without the Law—
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!
For heathen heart that puts her trust
In reeking tube and iron shard—
All valiant dust that builds on dust,
And guarding calls not Thee to guard.
For frantic boast and foolish word,
Thy Mercy on Thy People, Lord!
Amen.
