Guns of the Gods: A Story of Yasmini's Youth

So many look at the color, So many study design, Some of 'em squint through a microscope To judge if the texture is fine. A few give a thought to the price of the stuff, Some fe...

A bloody enlisted man--that's me, A peg in the officer's plan--maybe. Drunk on occasion, Disgrace to a nation And proper societee. Yet I've a notion the sky--pure blue Ain't mor...

Thus spoke the gods from their place above the firmament Turning from the feasting and the music and the mirth: "There is time and tide to burn; Let us stack the plates a turn A...

The buildings rear immense, horizons fade And thought forgets old gages in the ecstasy of view. The standards go by which the steps were made. On which we trod from former level...

There is a land where no resounding street With babel of electric-garish night And whir of endless wheels has put to flight The liberty of leisure. Sandaled feet And naked soles...

There's comfort in the purple creed Of rosary and hood; There's promise in the temple gong, And hope (deferred) when evensong Foretells a morrow's good; There's rapture in the r...

Loud laughed the gods (and their irony was pestilence; Pain was in their mockery, affliction in their scorn. The ryotwari cried On a stricken countryside, For the scab fell on t...

There are they who yet remember, when the depot's forty jaws Through iron teeth that chatter to the tramping of a throng Spew out the crushed commuter in obedience to laws That...

Deep broods the calm where the cooing doves are mating And shadows quiver noiseless 'neath the courtyard trees, Cool keeps the gloom where the suppliants are waiting Begging lit...

Very shortly after dawn on the morning of the polo game Yasmini left the Blaines' house on business of her own. The news of Gungadhura's abdication was abroad already, many time...

The Creator caused flowers to bloom in the desert and buried jewels in the bosom of the earth. That is lest men should grow idle, wallowing in delights they have, instead of acq...

In odor of sweet sanctity I bloom, With surplus of beatitude I bless, I'm the confidant of Destiny and Doom, I'm the apogee of knowledge more or less. If I lie, it is to tempori...

Bright spurs that add their roweled row To clanking saber's pride; Fierce eyes beneath a beetling brow; More license than the rules allow; A military stride; Years' use of arbit...

"You are a fool," said the crow. "Am I?" the hen answered. "Certainly you are a fool. You sit in a dark corner hatching eggs, when there are live chickens for the asking over yo...

He who is most easily persuaded is perhaps a fool, for the world is full of fools, and it is dangerous to deal with them. But perhaps he is a man who sees his own advantage hidd...

Sister Columbia, wonderful sister, Weariless wings on aerial way! Tell us the lore of thy loftiness, sister, We of the dark are astir for the day! Give us the gift of thy marvel...

A bad man ruined by the run of luck May shed the slime--they've done it, Times and again they've done it. That turn to aspiration out of muck Is quick if heart's begun it, If he...

Safe rules for defeating a rascal are three, And the first of them all is appear to agree. The second is boggle at points that don't matter, Hold out for expense and emolument f...

How about the door! Did somebody lock it? "I," said the Chairman, "had the key in my pocket." Who shut the windows? "I," said the vice. "I shut the window, it seemed to me wise....

The day of the great inauguration ceremony dawned inauspiciously for somebody. For one thing, the blasting powder laid ready by the sappers under the pipal trees for explosion t...

Of what use were the gift of gods, The buoyant sweetness of a virgin state, The blossomy delight of youth Ablow with promise of fruit consummate; What use the affluence of song...

Watch your step where the elephants sway Each at a chain at the end of a day, Hurrumdi-didddlidi-um-di-ay! Nothing to do but rock and swing, Clanking an iron picket ring, Plucki...

To cover a trail is less than half the work, for any dog with a nose can smell it out. You should make a false trail afterward to deceive the clever folk. -Eastern Proverb

He who sets a tiger-trap (Hush! and watch! and wait!) Can't afford a little nap Hidden where the twigs enwrap Lest--it has occurred--mayhap A jackal take the bait. So stay awake...

Down rings the curtain on a tale of love and mystery, Clash of guile and anger and the consequence it bore; The adventurers and kings Disappear into the wings. The puppet play i...