Verse > Rudyard Kipling > Verse: 1885–1918 (Royal Engineers)
WHEN the Waters were dried an’ the Earth did appear,   (“It’s
all one,” says the Sapper), The Lord He created the Engineer,
  Her Majesty’s Royal Engineer,   With the rank and pay of a
Sapper!        5 When the Flood come along for an extra monsoon,
’T was Noah constructed the first pontoon   To the plans of Her
Majesty’s, etc. But after fatigue in the wet an’ the sun, Old
Noah got drunk, which he wouldn’t ha’ done        10   If he’d
trained with, etc. When the Tower o’ Babel had mixed up men’s
bat, 1 Some clever civilian was managing that,   An’ none of,
etc. When the Jews had a fight at the foot of a hill,        15
Young Joshua ordered the sun to stand still,   For he was a
Captain of Engineers, etc. When the Children of Israel made
bricks without straw, They were learnin’ the regular work of our
Corps,   The work of, etc.        20 For ever since then, if a
war they would wage, Behold us a-shinin’ on history’s page—
  First page for, etc. We l