And the work of our head and hand
Belong to a woman who did not know
(And now we know that she never could know)
And did not understand!
"The Vampire"
(1897)
Rudyard Kipling
A fool there
was and he made his prayer
(Even as you
and I!)
To a rag and
a bone and a hunk of hair
(We called her
the woman who did not care)
But the fool
he called her his lady fair
(Even as you
and I!)
Oh, the years we
waste and the tears we waste
And the work of our head
and hand
Belong to a woman who
did not know
(And now we know that
she never could know)
And did not understand!
A fool there was
and his goods he spent
(Even as you
and I!)
Honour and faith
and a sure intent
(And it wasn't
the least what the lady meant)
But a fool must
follow his natural bent
(Even as you
and I!)
Oh the toil
we lost and the spoil we lost
And the excellent
things we planned
Belong to the
woman who didn't know why
(And now we know
that she never knew why)
And did not understand!
The fool
was stripped to his foolish hide
(Even as you
and I!)
Which she might
have seen as she threw him aside
(But it isn't
on record the lady tried)
So some of him
lived but the most of him died
(Even as you
and I!)
And it isn't the
shame and it isn't the blame
That stings like a white
hot brand
It's coming to know that
she never knew why
(Seeing, at last, she
could never knew why)
And never could understand!
The painting above by Philip Burne-Jones depicts the Modernist actress Stella Campbell as "The Vampire" in a play based on Kipling's poem.
"The people are of to-day,
with the interests of modern business and social life; but the veneer amounts
to nothing when shot through by the lightening bolt of sex. The Vampire is a
neurotic woman gone mad. She has enough sex attraction to supply a town full
of normally pleasing women, and she uses it with prodigal freedom." --Review
of A Fool There Was (a film adaptation of Kipling's poem) in The New
York Dramatic Mirror (20 January 1915)
Discussion questions for Kipling's "The Vampire":