Gods Of The East

by Rudyard Kipling

Because I sought it far from men,
In deserts and alone,
I found it burning overhead,
The jewel of a Throne.

Because I sought, I sought it so
And spent my days to find,
It blazed one moment ere it left
The blacker night behind.

We be the Gods of the East,
Older than all,
Masters of Mourning and Feast,
How shall we fall?


This I saw when the rites were done,
And the lamps were dead and the Gods alone,
And the grey snake coiled on the altar stone,
Ere I fled from a Fear that I could not see,
And the Gods of the East made mouths at me.