"Recessional" is a five-stanza poem written by Rudyard Kipling for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897. It is a cautionary message to the British Empire, urging humility and reflecting on the transience of power at a time of immense imperial pride and celebration, it reminds readers that the British Empire is trivial and transient in the face of the permanence of God:
A Recessional is actually something you sing on the way out of church, at the ends of a service. This is a recessional to the coming end of empire.
The poem is not particularly about war. Kipling would probably have been surprised about how his words have come to be used, particularly here in Australia, in a commemorative context.
God of our fathers, known of old,
Lord of our far-flung battle-line,
Beneath whose awful Hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine—
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!
The tumult and the shouting dies;
The Captains and the Kings depart:
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!
Far-called, our navies melt away;
On dune and headland sinks the fire:
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!
If, drunk with sight of power, we loose
Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe,
Such boastings as the Gentiles use,
Or lesser breeds without the Law—
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!
For heathen heart that puts her trust
In reeking tube and iron shard,
All valiant dust that builds on dust,
And guarding, calls not Thee to guard,
For frantic boast and foolish word—
Thy mercy on Thy People, Lord!
