In sensuous coil and heartless toil
In sinuous course and armored force
In savage harms that yield to charms
In all these things are snakes like kings
Uneven rough and high enough
Yet low folk roam; their flanks as home
And wild things haunt them; hungry, gaunt
In all these things are snakes like kings

In savage harms that yield to charms
Uneven rough and high enough
In sinuous course and armored force
In all these things are snakes like kings
The things that claw and the things that gore
Are unreliable things
And so is a man with a sword in his hand
And rivers, and women and kings