Rudyard Kipling

The Rabbi's Song

The Rabbi's Song - meaning Summary

Don't Let Grief Linger

Kipling advises the mourner to lift thought toward heaven and not let grief become a lingering presence in home or heirs. He warns that private anguish can spread, harming others unexpectedly, and urges cleansing the spirit to prevent haunting the living. Amid lost faith and dimmed love, the poem nonetheless insists there is a divine provision that spares the bereaved from complete exile, offering hope for reunion or mercy.

Read Complete Analyses

"The House Surgeon"--Actions and Reactions 2 Samuel XIV. 14. If Thought can reach to Heaven, On Heaven let it dwell, For fear the Thought be given Like power to reach to Hell. For fear the desolation And darkness of thy mind Perplex an habitation Which thou hast left behind. Let nothing linger after-- No whimpering gost remain, In wall, or beam, or rafter, Of any hate or pain. Cleans and call home thy spirit, Deny her leave to cast, On aught thy heirs inherit, The shadow of her past. For think, in all thy sadness, What road our griefs may take; Whose brain reflect our madness, Or whom our terrors shake: For think, lest any languish By cause of thy distress-- The arrows of our anguish Fly farther than we guess. Our lives, our tears, as water, Are spilled upon the ground; God giveth no man quarter, Yet God a means hath found, Though Faith and Hope have vanished, And even Love grows dim-- A means whereby His banished Be not expelled from Him!

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