# Quote from Kipling (?) verse sought

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quote-from-kipling-verse-sought/823996>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [November 5, 2018, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quote-from-kipling-verse-sought/823996 "2018-11-05T10:28:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\
**Post date:** [November 5, 2018, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quote-from-kipling-verse-sought/823996/1 "2018-11-05T10:28:54Z")

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I am looking for two or three lines of verse by – I very much suspect, but am not 100% certain – Kipling; attempted Googling has not helped me here.

These 2 / 3 lines are quoted (or maybe they are an adaptation of the original) in one of the _General_ aka _Raj Whitehall_ books by S.M. Stirling after an outline by David Drake (military fantasy in an imaginary universe). I do not have the books at present; I remember only the last line, “When the Governor gives the party” (preceding lines being to the effect that when he does, you jolly well attend and do what he requires of you).

Would be very grateful to anyone who might furnish to me, these few lines.

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**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\
**Post date:** [November 5, 2018, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quote-from-kipling-verse-sought/823996/2 "2018-11-05T11:07:45Z")

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You’re probably thinking of this:

And you can’t refuse when you get the card,  
 And the Widow gives the party.

The poem is [The Widow’s Party](https://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/kipling/widows_party.html), one of Kipling’s _Barrack-Room Ballads_. It’s about Victorian soldiers going to war, not parties.

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**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\
**Post date:** [November 5, 2018, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quote-from-kipling-verse-sought/823996/3 "2018-11-05T16:24:57Z")

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Many thanks – exactly what I was looking for ! Plainly the Widow is old Vicky herself – “the Widow at Windsor”. As plainly, Stirling “adjusted” re who it was running things in his _Raj Whitehall_ universe.