If you are wondering what poem is referenced at the beginning of the incredible two-take war film, “1917” (2019), it is none other than Rudyard Kipling’s “The Winners.”  Lieutenant Leslie (Andrew Scott) quotes its refrain in explaining why only two men will be sent to deliver urgent news to the British 1st Battalion Devonshire Regiment.

Incidentally, the poem that Scofield (George MacKay) recites to the French baby in the film’s second half is Edward Lear’s “The Jumblies.”

Kipling’s piece is presented below.

“The Winners”

What is the moral? Who rides may read.
When the night is thick and the tracks are blind,
A friend at a pinch is a friend indeed;
But a fool to wait for the laggard behind
Down to Gehenna, or up to the Throne,
He travels the fastest who travels alone.

White hands cling to the tightened rein,
Slipping the spur from the booted heel,
Tenderest voices cry, “Turn again,”
Red lips tarnish the scabbarded steel,
High hopes faint on a warm hearth-stone–
He travels the fastest who travels alone.

One may fall, but he falls by himself–
Falls by himself, with himself to blame;
One may attain, and to him is the pelf–
Loot of the city in Gold or Fame
Plunder of earth shall be all his own
Who travels the fastest, and travels alone.

Wherefore the more ye be holpen and stayed,
Stayed by a friend in the hour of toil,
Sing the heretical song I have made–
His be the labour, and yours be the spoil. 
Win by his aid, and the aid disown–
He travels the fastest who travels alone.