What of your hunting, hunter bold?
Brother, the watch was long and cold.
What of the quarry ye went to kill?
Brother, he crops in the jungle still.
Where is the power that made your pride?
Brother, it ebbs from my flank and side.
What is your haste as you hurry by?
Brother, I go to my lair--to die.
***
I like Disney's Jungle Book fine; when I was young we had an LP (!) of the soundtrack, and I can still sing along with King Louie and Baloo's scat singing pretty much syllable for syllable. But the real Jungle Book is about a gazillion times more awesome. I especially like "The Miracle of Purun Bhagat" (which does not have Mowgli in it at all), but there are so many good stories in it that one is spoilt for choice. The poem above prefaces "Tiger! Tiger!", in which Mowgli has his final confrontation with Sher Khan.
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