Percy Grainger — Morning Song in the Jungle

One moment past our bodies cast No shadow on the plain; Now clear and black they stride our track And we run home again In morning-hush, each rock and bush Stands hard, and high, and raw: Then give the Call: "Good rest to all That keep the Jungle Law!" Now horn and pelt our peoples melt In covert to abide; Now crouched and still, to cave and hill Our Jungle Barons glide Now, stark and plain, Man's oxen strain That draw the new-yoked plough; Now striped and dread the dawn is red Above the lit talao Ho! Get to lair! The sun's aflare Behind the breathing grass: And creaking through the young bamboo The warning whispers pass By day made strange, the woods we range With blinking eyes we scan; While down the skies the wild duck cries: "The Day - the Day to Man!" The dew is dried that drenched our hide Or washed about our way; And where we drank, the puddled bank Is crisping into clay The traitor Dark gives up each mark Of stretched or hooded claw: Then hear the Call: "Good rest to all That keep the Jungle Law!"