The Jungle Book

Mark me, it is good! As an oak From a crooked seed, I grew fat in the wood, While the wind, as it spoke, Swept my green boughs, And the tree’s open-eyed Seemed to mock at the sky.

By the foaming stream, I watched my fruit turn gold And learned from the sun, That self in the wilds is a pact With Mother Nature — And is a small thing — In the wild and the still.

I sang like a lark, As father and son Wrought their charms. The jungle is mine! I was born of it!

• Rudyard Kipling