Mowgli's song against people

I will let loose against you the fleet-footed vines -
I will call in the Jungle to stamp out your lines!
The roofs shall fade before it,
The house-beams shall fall;
And the Karela1, the bitter Karela,
Shall cover it all!

In the gates of these your councils my people shall sing.
In the doors of these your garners the Bat-folk shall cling;
And the snake shall be your watchman,
By a hearthstone unswept;
For the Karela, the bitter Karela,
Shall fruit where ye slept!

Ye shall not see my strikers; ye shall hear them and guess;
By night, before the moon-rise, I will send for my cess2,
And the wolf shall be your herdsman
By a landmark removed;
For the Karela, the bitter Karela,
Shall seed where ye loved!

I will reap your fields before you at the hands of a host;
Ye shall glean behind my reapers for the bread that is lost;
And the deer shall be your oxen
On a headland untilled;
For the Karela, the bitter Karela,
Shall leaf where ye build!

I have untied against you the club-footed vines,
I have sent in the Jungle to swamp out your lines.
The trees - the trees are on you!
The house-beams shall fall;
For the Karela, the bitter Karela,
Shall cover [you] it all!

by Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) , "Mowgli's song against people", from The Second Jungle Book, ending the story "Letting in the Jungle", published 1895

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

by Percy Aldridge Grainger (1882-1961) , "Mowgli's song against people", 1903, published 1958, rev. 1907, rev. 1923 [baritone and tenor with strings, piano, harmonium, two oboes, cor anglais, horn], from The Jungle Book, no. 11.
by Anthony L. W. Scott (1911-) , "Mowgli's song against people" [SS chorus and piano]

Added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

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