Route Marchin'

Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)



We're marchin' on relief over Injia's sunny plains,
A little front o' Christmas-time an' just be'ind the Rains;
Ho! get away you bullock-man, you've 'eard the bugle blowed,
There's a regiment a-comin' down the Grand Trunk Road;
    With its best foot first
    And the road a-sliding past,
    An' every bloomin' campin'-ground exactly like the last;
    While the Big Drum says,
    With 'is "~rowdy-dowdy-dow!~" --
    "~Kiko kissywarsti~ don't you ~hamsher argy jow?~"*
 
* Why don't you get on?
 
Oh, there's them Injian temples to admire when you see,
There's the peacock round the corner an' the monkey up the tree,
An' there's that rummy silver grass a-wavin' in the wind,
An' the old Grand Trunk a-trailin' like a rifle-sling be'ind.
    While it's best foot first, . . .
 
At half-past five's Revelly, an' our tents they down must come,
Like a lot of button mushrooms when you pick 'em up at 'ome.
But it's over in a minute, an' at six the column starts,
While the women and the kiddies sit an' shiver in the carts.
    An' it's best foot first, . . .
 
Oh, then it's open order, an' we lights our pipes an' sings,
An' we talks about our rations an' a lot of other things,
An' we thinks o' friends in England, an' we wonders what they're at,
An' 'ow they would admire for to hear us sling the ~bat~.*
    An' it's best foot first, . . .
 
* Language.  Thomas's first and firmest conviction is that
he is a profound Orientalist and a fluent speaker of Hindustani.
As a matter of fact, he depends largely on the sign-language.
 
It's none so bad o' Sunday, when you're lyin' at your ease,
To watch the kites a-wheelin' round them feather-'eaded trees,
For although there ain't no women, yet there ain't no barrick-yards,
So the orficers goes shootin' an' the men they plays at cards.
    Till it's best foot first, . . .
 
So 'ark an' 'eed, you rookies, which is always grumblin' sore,
There's worser things than marchin' from Umballa to Cawnpore;
An' if your 'eels are blistered an' they feels to 'urt like 'ell,
You drop some tallow in your socks an' that will make 'em well.
    For it's best foot first, . . .
 
We're marchin' on relief over Injia's coral strand,
Eight 'undred fightin' Englishmen, the Colonel, and the Band;
Ho! get away you bullock-man, you've 'eard the bugle blowed,
There's a regiment a-comin' down the Grand Trunk Road;
    With its best foot first
    And the road a-sliding past,
    An' every bloomin' campin'-ground exactly like the last;
    While the Big Drum says,
    With 'is "~rowdy-dowdy-dow!~" --
    "~Kiko kissywarsti~ don't you ~hamsher argy jow?~"

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 20, 2023

2:22 min read
128

Quick analysis:

Scheme aaBBCDDEFG h iixbc jjkkC llmmC mhg nnooc ppqqc rrBBCDDEFG
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 2,548
Words 439
Stanzas 9
Stanza Lengths 10, 1, 5, 5, 5, 3, 5, 5, 10

Rudyard Kipling

Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English short-story writer, poet, and novelist chiefly remembered for his tales and poems of British soldiers in India and his tales for children. more…

All Rudyard Kipling poems | Rudyard Kipling Books

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