The other tendency is that
which has existed since art was born, and which, though temporarily
and justly ignored in periods when it is necessary to recreate a
technical standard, always comes to the surface when men have learned
their trade as painters. It is the desire to create; the instinct
which impels one to use the language given him to express thought. The
two tendencies are not incompatible; and in the end the artist will
arise who, with certainty of expression, will express thought.
"SOLDIER AN' SAILOR TOO."
BY RUDYARD KIPLING,
AUTHOR OF "BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS," "THE JUNGLE BOOK," ETC.
As I was spittin' into the Ditch aboard o' the "Crocodile,"
I seed a man on a man-o'-war got up in the Reg'lars' style.
'E was scrapin' the paint from off of 'er plates, an' I sez to 'im:
"Oo are you?"
Sez 'e: "I'm a Jolly--'er Majesty's Jolly--soldier an' sailor too!"
_Now 'is work begins by Gawd knows when, and 'is work is never
through--
'E isn't one o' the Regular line, nor 'e isn't one of the crew--
'E's a kind of a giddy herumfrodite--soldier an' sailor too_!
An' after I met 'im all over the world, a-doin' all kinds o' things,
Like landin' 'isself with a Gatling-gun to talk to them 'eathen kings;
'E sleeps in an 'ammick instead of a cot, an' 'e drills with the deck
on a slue,
An' 'e sweats like a Jolly--'er Majesty's Jolly--soldier an' sailor too!
_For there isn't a job on the top o' the earth the beggar don't
know--nor do!
You can leave 'im at night on a bald man's 'ead to paddle 'is own
canoe;
'E's a sort of a bloomin' cosmopolot--soldier an' sailor too_.
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