Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Revisiting L'Envoi by Rudyard Kipling

When you first read "L'Envoi" by Rudyard Kipling, you connected it to the themes and messages found in Bless Me, Ultima.  It provided you with a lens of interpretation that helped you understand the meaning of the poem.


Read "L'Envoi" by Rudyard Kipling again.  After reading Life of Pi, you should have a new understanding of reason, belief, God, and stories in general.  Use this new knowledge and lens to discover a new meaning of the poem.


Post a comment about your new interpretation.




L'ENVOI
By: Rudyard Kipling (1919)

[To whom it may concern]

The smoke upon your Altar dies,
The flowers decay,
The Goddess of your sacrifice
Has flown away.
What profit then to sing or slay
The sacrifice from day to day?



"We know the Shrine is void," they said,
"The Goddess flown—
"Yet wreaths are on the altar laid—
"The Altar-Stone
"Is black with fumes of sacrifice,
"Albeit She has fled our eyes.



"For, it may be, if still we sing
"And tend the Shrine,
"Some Deity on wandering wing
"May there incline;
"And, finding all in order meet,
"Stay while we worship at Her feet."