The Flight
The Flight - meaning Summary
Wisdom of Fleeing Instinct
Kipling's poem depicts grey geese who quietly depart when they sense a threat — not from visible danger but from human treachery and disturbance. Their subtle withdrawal contrasts with mankind's noisy alarm when the birds are gone. The closing line gives the geese a knowing voice, refusing to be lured back by human pleas and indicting human unpredictability and dishonesty as reasons for their self-preserving flight.
Read Complete AnalysesWhen the grey geese heard the Fool's tread Too near to where they lay, They lifted neither voice nor head, But took themselves away. No water broke, no pinion whirred- There went no warning call. The steely, sheltering rushes stirred A little--that was all. Only the osiers understood, And the drowned meadows spied What else than wreckage of a flood Stole outward on that tide. But the far beaches saw their ranks Gather and greet and grow By myriads on the naked banks Watching their sign to go; Till, with a roar of wings that churned The shivering shoals to foam, Flight after flight took air and turned - To find a safer home; And far below their steadfast wedge, They heard (and hastened on) Men thresh and clamour through the sedge Aghast that they were gone! And, when men prayed them come anew And nest where they were bred, "Nay, fools foretell what knaves will do," Was all the grey geese said.
1930
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