Morning Song in the Jungle

One moment past our bodies cast
No shadow on the plain;
Now clear and black they stride our track
And we run home again
In morning-hush, each rock and bush
Stands hard, and high, and raw:
Then give the Call: "Good rest to all
That keep the Jungle Law!"

Now horn and pelt our peoples melt
In covert to abide;
Now crouched and still, to cave and hill
Our Jungle Barons glide
Now, stark and plain, Man's oxen strain
That draw the new-yoked plough;
Now striped and dread the dawn is red
Above the lit talao

Ho! Get to lair! The sun's aflare
Behind the breathing grass:
And creaking through the young bamboo
The warning whispers pass
By day made strange, the woods we range
With blinking eyes we scan;
While down the skies the wild duck cries:
"The Day - the Day to Man!"

The dew is dried that drenched our hide
Or washed about our way;
And where we drank, the puddled bank
Is crisping into clay
The traitor Dark gives up each mark
Of stretched or hooded claw:
Then hear the Call: "Good rest to all
That keep the Jungle Law!"