Rudyard Kipling: Selected Poems

by Rudyard Kipling

  ‘A Song of Travel’ (p. 125). Morning Post, 12 March 1908, with article ‘The Road to Quebec’; Songs from Books. The article is reprinted, without the poem, in Letters of Travel (1920). Lines 1–2, Hero and Leander were legendary lovers separated by the Hellespont, which Leander would swim every night, guided by ‘the lamp that Hero lit’; line 6, Argo, the ship commanded by Jason in his search for the golden fleece. The poem owes much to Edgar Allan Poe’s poem ‘To Helen’ (1831).

  ‘The Power of the Dog’ (p. 126). Closing poem to the story ‘Garm – A Hostage’, Actions and Reactions (1909); Songs from Books.

  ‘The Puzzler’ (p. 127). Closing poem to the story of the same name, Actions and Reactions; expanded for Songs from Books. Kipling made less of a contribution to the popular stereotype of the Englishman as strong, silent, thinking slowly but acting decisively, than is often assumed. This, however, is one such contribution. The Celt (lines 1, 19), from Wales to Ireland, from Spain to Scotland. Line 16, argot, slang; Remove, an intermediate form or class at public schools.

  ‘The Rabbi’s Song’ (p. 128). Closing poem to the story ‘The House Surgeon’, Actions and Reactions; Songs from Books. The story concerns the exorcism of a house, the haunting being psychological rather than supernatural. The biblical reference given by Kipling is alluded to directly in the final stanza of the poem. It is not clear why it should be a rabbi speaking, though it probably refers to Robert Browning’s poem ‘Rabbi Ben Ezra’ (1864), an optimistic assertion of complete trust in God. Kipling’s rabbi qualifies this view by recognizing the power of the mind to turn to and spread the forces of Evil.

  ‘A Charm’ (p. 129). Introductory poem to Rewards and Fairies (1910); Songs from Books. Lines 33–4 were dropped from Songs from Books and the Definitive Edition, though restored for the Sussex Edition of Rewards and Fairies. Line 26, Candlemas, 2 February, the feast of the purification of the Virgin Mary; line 27, simples, medicines.

  ‘Cold Iron’ (p. 130). Closing poem to the story of the same name, Rewards and Fairies; Songs from Books. Iron was traditionally supposed to fend off supernatural forces, hence horseshoes nailed to house and stable doors. The precise nature of Kipling’s religious beliefs is a matter for conjecture, though this poem is clearly an expression of Christian faith, with the metallic symbols of earthly power and superstition being superseded by the greater redemptive power of the iron nails that held Christ to the cross. Lines 25–8, not exact biblical references, but see Luke 24:30; John 20:27 and 21:12.

  ‘The Looking-Glass’ (p. 132). Closing poem to the story ‘Gloriana’, Rewards and Fairies; Songs from Books. Line 1, Harry, King Henry VIII; line 3, King Philip II of Spain; lines 3–4, Kipling added a note to the Definitive Edition: ‘A pair of Queen Elizabeth’s shoes are still at Brickwall House, Northiam, Sussex’; line 15, Mary Queen of Scots, put to death by Elizabeth; line 22, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, one-time favourite of Elizabeth.

  ‘The Way through the Woods’ (p. 133). Opening poem to the story ‘Marklake Witches’, Rewards and Fairies; Songs from Books.

  ‘If –’ (p. 134). Closing poem to the story ‘Brother Square Toes’, Rewards and Fairies; Songs from Books, and subsequently in many different forms. Kipling claimed that the poem was based on the character of Dr L.S. Jameson, leader of the ‘Jameson raid’ which helped precipitate the Boer War: he also described the poem as made up of ‘counsels of perfection most easy to give’. The enormous popularity the poem once enjoyed and the mockery it has provoked have tended to obscure the good sense it contains and the epigrammatic skill of many of its precepts.

  ‘Poor Honest Men’ (p. 135). Closing poem to the story ‘A Priest in Spite of Himself’, Rewards and Fairies; Songs from Books. The historical setting is dated 1800. A similar subject to ‘A Smuggler’s Song’, though treated quite differently. Line 12, press, to be forcibly enlisted in the navy; line 27, King George III; line 37, Forties and Fifties, the ‘roaring’ ocean winds of the South Atlantic; line 40, Ushant, an Atlantic island off the French coast.

  ‘Our Fathers of Old’ (p. 137). Closing poem to the story ‘A Doctor of Medicine’, Rewards and Fairies; Songs from Books. Line 16, the astrological belief that all things on earth are governed by the stars; line 28, blister and bleed, to raise blisters on the skin and to draw blood from the body as ways of curing illnesses; line 35, to signify that the house contained plague victims; lines 41–2, Galen and Hippocrates, ancient Greek physicians and writers on medicine.

  ‘The Declaration of London’ (p. 139). Morning Post, 29 June 1911; The Years Between. In the years prior to the First World War there were many attempts to regulate international shipping and to control the naval arms race between nations. In 1911 the Liberal government put forward a Naval Prize Bill (based on proposals known as ‘The Declaration of London’, drawn up two years earlier) which would have restricted Britain’s ability in time of war to import food and to establish a naval blockade against an enemy. There was widespread opposition to the Bill and it was defeated in the Lords. Kipling’s contribution to the campaign was this poem. That the objectors were right to be concerned was proved three years later in the war with Germany. Line 10, the coronation of George V was held on 22 June in Westminster Abbey (line 2). While the event was still being celebrated, with foreign ‘guests’ (some of them potential ‘foes’) still in London, Parliament re-assembled on 26 June to debate a policy that if accepted would betray Britain to those same guests/foes.

  ‘The Female of the Species’ (p. 140). Morning Post, 20 October 1911; The Years Between. Written in response to the militant activity of the Suffragettes, it provoked replies, parodies and objections from feminists, among them Kipling’s seventeen-year-old daughter.

  ‘The River’s Tale’ (p. 142). Introductory poem to A History of England (1911) by C.R.L. Fletcher, with poems by Kipling, written ‘for all boys and girls who are interested in the story of Great Britain and her Empire’.

  ‘The Roman Centurion’s Song’ (p. 144). A History of England. Kipling’s poems and stories about the Roman Empire carry, implicitly, comparisons with the British Empire. Similar feelings to those expressed by the Roman centurion are to be found elsewhere in poems about India, Burma, and South Africa. Line 1, Legate, the governor of a province; cohort, a body of soldiers similar in size to a British battalion; line 2, Portus Itius, a Roman sea-port in France; line 5, Vectis, the Isle of Wight; line 17, Rhodanus, the Rhône; line 18, Nemausus, Nîmes in the south of France; line 19, Arelate, Arles, also in southern France; line 20, Euroclydon, the North East Wind; line 21, the Aurelian Road, running down the Italian coast and home to Rome.

  ‘Dane-Geld’ (p. 145). A History of England. The History explains that King Ethelred’s parliament advised him to ‘buy off the Danes with hard cash called “Danegold” or “Dane-Geld”. The Danes pocketed the silver pennies, laughed, and came back for more.’ The historical setting of the poem is given as AD 980–1016, but when the History was published in 1911 Kipling would also have had in mind contemporary Britain’s increasingly hostile relations with Germany.

  ‘The French Wars’ (p. 146). A History of England. Kipling’s great love of France began when he was a schoolboy and never wavered. Here he sets, against the traditional image of France as Britain’s natural enemy, contemporary sea-sick passengers trudging through Customs. Diplomacy prior to the First World War had already established that Britain and France would be allies in any war with Germany. Line 13, Sluys, a naval battle between Britain and France in 1340; line 15, Seventy-fours, the number of guns carried by a battleship; line 16, chasse-marées, coastal vessels often used in the Napoleonic wars for smuggling.

  ‘The Glory of the Garden’ (p. 147). A History of England. The closing poem of the book; a classic Kipling statement that life is service, work, dedication, in whatever capacity. The garden may be grand but it is the gardeners who make it so, not the owners. The image of England as a garden descends from Elizabethan literature, especially Shakespeare: there are also clear bibl
ical allusions to Genesis.

  ‘For All We Have and Are’ (p. 148). The Times, 2 September 1914; The Years Between. Germany declared war on France on 3 August 1914: Britain declared war on Germany the following day. It was a war that Kipling had long expected and he put the blame for it entirely on Germany. Line 4, the word Hun was generally used to describe any barbarous or uncivilized person, after the Asiatic tribes which invaded Europe in the fourth century AD. Only now (though for the same reason) was it applied specifically to the Germans.

  ‘Mine Sweepers’ (p. 150). Daily Telegraph, 23 November 1915, with article ‘The Auxiliaries II’. The Fringes of the Fleet (1915); Sea Warfare (1916). Mines had long been a familiar part of naval warfare, though they were first extensively deployed in the First World War. The first vessels designed to deal with the problem were adapted fishing trawlers, with wires stretched between two ships which ‘swept’ or ‘trawled’ mines to the surface of the water so that they could be destroyed. Line 1, North and South Foreland, headlands on the eastern coast of Kent, used for guarding the Thames estuary; line 5, fairway, the navigable channel leading to the entrance of a harbour; line 7, some of the ships’ names in the refrain were real, some invented; line 9, bight, an area of sea between two promontories; line 17, syreens, sirens.

  ‘Tin Fish’ (p. 150). Daily Telegraph, 27 November 1915, with article ‘Submarines II’; The Fringes of the Fleet; Sea Warfare.

  ‘The Trade’ (p. 151). The Times, 21 June 1916, with article ‘Some Work in the Baltic’; Tales of ‘The Trade’; Sea Warfare. An earlier version of this poem was written for the first number of The Maidstone Muckrag, October 1914, a magazine produced by the men of the Eighth Submarine Flotilla of the Royal Navy. ‘The Trade’ was the term used by the men of the Submarine Service to describe their work: the precise origin of the term is unknown. Lines 1–2, early submarines were classified by letters and numbers: Kipling was writing about E-type submarines; line 5, as they were designed to operate on the surface of the sea as well as underwater they carried guns capable of shooting down Zeppelins; line 7, the range of these particular submarines was not great, and reaching as far as the Baltic was regarded as extremely daring; line 9, prize-courts, able to award part of the proceeds from the sale of captured enemy vessels to the captors; line 18, the Swin, a shoal in the northern approaches to the Thames estuary; line 23, one-eyed, periscope.

  ‘My Boy Jack’ (p. 152). The Times, 19 October 1916, with the first of four articles ‘Destroyers at Jutland’; Destroyers at Jutland (1916); Sea Warfare. The Battle of Jutland, in the North Sea May/June 1916, was the only major naval engagement between the British and German fleets in the First World War. British losses of ships and men were considerably heavier than those of the Germans, but it was the German fleet that remained in port for the rest of the war, making it at least a tactical British victory.

  ‘The Question’ (p. 153). Published as a copyright pamphlet in America, 1916, and as the closing poem of Sea Warfare, with the title ‘The Neutral’. It was an attempt to stir America to enter the war in support of Britain. The strength of Kipling’s feelings can be seen by the tart footnote the poem carries in the Definitive Edition: ‘Attitude of the United States of America during the first two years, seven months and four days of the Great War.’ America declared war on Germany on 6 April 1917 and Kipling wrote a poem, ‘The Choice’, praising the change of policy and welcoming America into the war.

  ‘Mesopotamia’ (p. 154). Morning Post, 11 July 1917; The Years Between. Written in response to the publication of an official report on the terrible mismanagement of the Mesopotamian campaign, early 1916. The initial purpose of the campaign, which was organized by the Indian government with support from Britain, was to protect oil interests, but it turned into an attempt to capture Baghdad and resulted in the surrender of the British army to Turkey at Kut Al-Amara on 29 April 1916. After the war Mesopotamia (now Iraq) became a British Mandate.

  ‘The Holy War’ (p. 155). Land and Water, 6 December 1917; The Years Between. John Bunyan (1628–88), the son of a tinker and apprenticed to the same trade, fought for the parliamentarians under General Fairfax in the English Civil War. He became a Baptist minister in 1657 and after the Restoration in 1660 he was imprisoned for twelve years; wrote The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678), and The Holy War (1682) in which Kipling sees a complete anticipation of the progress of the First World War. In Bunyan’s allegory the town of Mansoul is besieged by the forces of Diabolus but is eventually saved by Emmanuel, the son of the King of Mansoul. The type-names in the poem are from Bunyan or adaptations by Kipling. Line 6, Armageddon, Revelation 16:16, the site of the last great battle before the Day of Judgement; lines 29–30, probably conscientious objectors and pacifists; line 35, Apollyon, the Angel of the Abyss, Revelation 9:9; line 36, Stockholmites, neutrals (i.e. following the example of Sweden); line 42, Bunhill Fields, the Nonconformists’ cemetery in the City of London where Bunyan is buried; lines 51–2, Daniel Defoe, another Nonconformist, is usually described as the ‘Father of the English novel’, but Bunyan’s religious allegories showed him the way.

  ‘Jobson’s Amen’ (p. 157). First two stanzas used as epigraph to an article ‘A Return to the East’, Nash’s Magazine, July 1914, but the complete poem at the close of the story ‘In the Presence’, A Diversity of Creatures (1917). The story is based on the actual experiences of four Gurkhas taking on heroic ceremonial duties at King Edward VII’s lying-in-state. The poem is an ironic comment on British boastfulness and religiosity, with Jobson’s ‘Amen’ celebrating instead the freer atmosphere (and, as the story demonstrates, the greater endurance) of the East. The reason for using the name Jobson is not clear: there are several possible meanings. Hobson-Jobson is the title of the standard dictionary of Anglo-Indian phrases, first published in 1886: it describes religious excitement or enthusiasm, and this could apply here. The endurance demonstrated in the story is also worthy of ‘Job’.

  ‘The Fabulists’ (p. 158). First published in A Diversity of Creatures, misleadingly as the second of two closing poems to the story ‘My Son’s Wife’, though subsequently as the opening poem of the story ‘The Vortex’. In the Definitive Edition it carries the date 1914–18, to indicate that the tormented thought processes it traces are related directly to the war.

  ‘Justice’ (p. 159). The Times, 24 October 1918; The Years Between. An armistice between the Allies and Germany was finally reached on 11 November 1918. Three weeks before that date Kipling is warning that true ‘justice’ can be achieved only if a lasting peace is obtained. He was convinced that Germany still had the power and the will to prepare for another war.

  ‘The Hyaenas’ (p. 160). The Years Between. Line 2, kites, birds of prey. The ‘hyaenas’ of the poem are the politicians who were dividing up the post-war world and, in the process, betraying the dead.

  ‘En-Dor’ (p. 161). The Years Between. Kipling’s son John died in the Battle of Loos, September 1915: his body was never recovered. While Kipling’s wife continued to hope that John might have been taken prisoner, Kipling himself had less hope. Along with many other parents in the same position, the Kiplings received approaches from spiritualists claiming to be able to put them in touch with their dead son. The biblical reference indicates the ancient nature of the experience, while the uncertain date (1914–19-?) added to the poem’s title in the Definitive Edition suggests, presumably, that the experience is also unending.

  ‘Gethsemane’ (p. 163). The Years Between. Matthew 26:36–9. Gas was first used by Germany at the second battle of Ypres (April/May 1915), after which gasmasks (line 7) were issued to troops; to ship, to have something ready for use.

  ‘The Craftsman’ (p. 163). The Years Between. Line 1, The Mermaid Tavern, Bread Street, London, where Elizabethan writers gathered to drink and talk, as Shakespeare and Jonson do here; line 2, Boanerges, Mark 3:17 where the name means Sons of Thunder. Kipling used it several times to refer to someone who is loud, overbearing, or quarrelsome, as Ben Jonson was reputed
to be.

  ‘The Benefactors’ (p. 164). The opening two stanzas were used as an epigraph to the story ‘The Edge of the Evening’, A Diversity of Creatures; the full poem, The Years Between. Lines 5–8, close to views expressed in Robert Browning’s ‘Fra Lippo Lippi’ (1855). The view of life in this poem returns to that expressed by Kipling as early as Departmental Ditties, though now sharpened by the experience of the First World War (lines 37–8) and its uncertain aftermath (lines 41–4).

  ‘Natural Theology’ (p. 166). The Years Between. The title refers to theology based on reasoning from natural observation rather than revelation. Kipling is alluding to Robert Browning’s poem ‘Caliban upon Setebos; or Natural Theology in the Island’ (1864). Like Caliban, the various speakers here justify their beliefs, or lack of belief, in terms of their own narrow views of life. Line 35, the battle of Mons, August 1914, was the opening engagement of the war. The British Expeditionary Force joined up with the French army and both were forced to retreat from the advancing Germans. It was at Mons that an ‘Angel’ was said to have appeared to inspire British troops.

  ‘Epitaphs of the War’ (p. 168). The Years Between. Kipling worked for the Imperial War Graves Commission from September 1917 to the end of his life. He made many visits to war cemeteries in Europe, advised on all aspects of the Commission’s work, wrote pamphlets and reports, and composed a large number of epitaphs for the memorials to the dead erected throughout the world. It was at Kipling’s suggestion that ‘Their name liveth for evermore’ (Ecclesiasticus, 44) was adopted as the general inscription for all war graves. However, ‘Epitaphs of War’, as published in The Years Between and reprinted here, were works of the imagination, commemorations modelled on The Greek Anthology, with, Kipling insisted, ‘neither personal nor geographical basis’. In the Definitive Edition the Canadian epitaphs are not differentiated, but are simply called ‘Two Canadian Memorials’: the present wording follows the Sussex Edition. Sepoy, Indian soldier serving in the British Army; Halfa, in Mesopotamia; ‘The Refined Man’, the Definitive Edition has ‘stepped aside’; ‘Native Water-Carrier (M.E.F.)’, Mediterranean Expeditionary Force; Tarentum, the Gulf of Taranto, Italy; V.A.D., Voluntary Aid Detachment (nursing service).