Arithmetic On The Frontier (Rudyard Kipling)

from Poetry and Music 14 by Toby Darling

	/

Streaming + Download

Includes high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. Paying supporters also get unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app.

Purchasable with gift card

name your price
Buy the Full Digital Album

lyrics

Arithmetic on the Frontier
Am D
A great and glorious thing it is
C E7
To learn, for seven years or so,
Am D
The Lord knows what of that and this,
C E7
Ere reckoned fit to face the foe --
G Dm
The flying bullet down the Pass,
C- G E7
That whistles clear: "All flesh is grass."

Three hundred pounds per annum spent
On making brain and body meeter
For all the murderous intent
Comprised in "villanous saltpetre!"
And after -- ask the Yusufzaies
What comes of all our 'ologies.

Dm G
A scrimmage in a Border Station --
Am E7
A canter down some dark defile --
Am - G - F - D
Two thousand pounds of education
Am E7
Drops to a ten-rupee jezail --
Am - G - F - Em
The Crammer's boast, the Squadron's pride,
Am E7
Shot like a rabbit in a ride!

No proposition Euclid wrote,
No formulae the text-books know,
Will turn the bullet from your coat,
Or ward the tulwar's downward blow
Strike hard who cares -- shoot straight who can --
The odds are on the cheaper man.

One sword-knot stolen from the camp
Will pay for all the school expenses
Of any Kurrum Valley scamp
Who knows no word of moods and tenses,
But, being blessed with perfect sight,
Picks off our messmates left and right.

With home-bred hordes the hillsides teem,
The troopships bring us one by one,
At vast expense of time and steam,
To slay Afridis where they run.
The "captives of our bow and spear"
Are cheap, alas! as we are dear.

credits

from Poetry and Music 14, released December 10, 2017

license

some rights reserved

about

Toby Darling Penang, Malaysia

Amateur enthusiast.
Feel free to do anything you want with these tracks, I am not interested in making money from music.

contact / help

Contact Toby Darling

Streaming and
Download help

Report this track or account

If you like Toby Darling, you may also like:

COURAGE
by aja monet

Soulful, contemporary American poet steps out with piano-heavy solo record. Husky vocals ride bluesy rock and r&b riffs. Bandcamp New & Notable Nov 25, 2014
go to album
Boreas
by The Oh Hellos

The Texan sibling indie-folk duo is back with a new album that is filled with sweeping, cinematic tracks. Bandcamp New & Notable Sep 4, 2020
go to album
Eurus
by The Oh Hellos

The Oh Hellos return with their glorious Southern Texas twang-tinged rock. Bandcamp New & Notable Feb 8, 2018
go to album
Dear Wormwood
by The Oh Hellos

Bandcamp stalwarts Maggie and Tyler Heath return with a brand new album, and for the first time - vinyl! Bandcamp New & Notable Aug 21, 2015
go to album
Blue Breath
by Bellows

Dope indie leaning, folk inflicted, pop record, pieced together in 5 bedrooms spanning Brooklyn to Chicago. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 18, 2014
go to album
Champion of the Afterworld
by Dan Misha Goldman

featured on Bandcamp Radio Mar 21, 2017
go to album
Safe Passage
by Astralingua

Astralingua mixes otherwordly folk and augural classical music into their newest offering. Bandcamp New & Notable Feb 13, 2019
go to album